The first hour
- Switch devices to battery backup. Check how long batteries last.
- Oxygen: switch to tanks if your concentrator needs power. Never use oxygen near candles, flames or a gas stove.
- If a device is life-sustaining and you can't power it, go somewhere with power or call 911.
The first day
- Charge batteries where there's power: a fire station, library, hospital or charging center.
- Keep meds cool if needed (see power outage guidance).
- Check on loved ones twice a day.
The first week and beyond
- Ask your utility about a medical baseline or priority list.
- Ask your doctor about backup options.
- Make a written plan with caregivers.
Get ready now: checklist
Your checks save on this phone.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the power will be back soon.
- Using oxygen near open flame.
- Having no plan for moving someone with mobility needs.
Keeping kids calm
- Teach kids how to help Grandma or Grandpa: carry the flashlight, bring water.
Gear that helps
- CPAP battery pack
- Portable power station: my pick, Jackery Explorer 300 Portable Power Station
- Spare wheelchair batteries
- Pill organizers
- Medical ID bracelet
- Large print emergency card
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Sources
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Prepper tricks for this
Staying Warm Without Power (15)
Pick one warm room and seal it up
Cost: Free.
Why it works: Heating (or holding body heat in) a small space is far easier than a whole house. Fewer outside walls means less heat leaking out.
How to do it
- Choose a small room with the fewest windows and outside walls; a sunny south-facing room is a bonus.
- Move everyone, bedding and supplies into that room.
- Close the doors to all other rooms.
- Roll a bath towel and push it against the bottom of the door, or make a draft snake from an old pant leg or tube sock filled with rice or sand.
- Hang a blanket over the doorway too if it is drafty.
Safety: If you use any approved heater in that room, keep a working battery carbon monoxide alarm in the same room.
Source: Ready.gov: Winter Weather
Indoor tent or blanket fort
Cost: Free if you own a tent or blankets.
Why it works: A tent traps a small pocket of air that your bodies can warm, a bit like a room inside a room.
How to do it
- Set up a camping tent inside your warm room, or drape blankets over a table to make a fort.
- Put a rug, foam pad or folded blankets on the floor first; the floor steals the most heat.
- Get in with sleeping bags and family members. The small space warms up from body heat.
- Leave a small gap for fresh air.
Safety: Never put a candle, heater or stove inside a tent or fort. Babies need their own flat, firm sleep space; dress them in layers or a sleep sack instead of piling on loose blankets.
Source: Ready.gov: Winter Weather
Bubble wrap on windows
Cost: About $10-20 for a roll that covers several windows.
Why it works: The trapped air pockets add insulation. It helps most on old single-pane windows, where it can roughly cut window heat loss in half; it adds less on modern double-pane glass.
How to do it
- Cut bubble wrap to the size of the glass.
- Spray a light mist of water on the glass.
- Press the bubble side against the wet glass. It sticks on its own and peels off later.
- Do this before winter storms so it's ready.
Safety: It blocks the view and some light. Leave at least one window clear in case you need to see out or get out.
Source: Ready.gov: Winter Weather
Curtains, blankets and rugs (and free sun heat)
Cost: Free using what you have; moving blankets are about $10 each.
Why it works: Fabric layers slow heat leaving through cold glass, and sunlight through glass is free heat.
How to do it
- Hang heavy curtains, moving blankets or quilts over windows and keep them closed at night.
- On sunny days, open the curtains on south-facing windows to let sunlight warm the room, then close them before sunset.
- Lay rugs or blankets on bare floors.
Safety: Keep fabric well away from any heater or flame.
Source: Ready.gov: Power Outages
Hot water bottle in your sleeping bag
Cost: Free if you own the bottle; a Nalgene is about $15.
Why it works: Water holds a lot of heat and releases it slowly. Warming your core and big leg blood vessels warms your whole body.
How to do it
- Heat water on a safe heat source (see the heater and stove rules below).
- Fill a sturdy bottle rated for hot liquids, such as a Nalgene or a rubber hot water bottle. Never use a thin disposable water bottle; it softens and can split.
- Screw the cap on tight and hold it upside down over the sink to check for leaks.
- Slip it into a sock or wrap it in a towel.
- Put it at your feet or between your thighs in your sleeping bag. It stays warm for several hours.
Safety: Burns are the risk: always wrap it, and check on children, older adults and anyone who may not feel heat well (like people with diabetes).
Source: Ready.gov: Winter Weather
Rice sock warmer
Cost: Free.
Why it works: Rice holds heat and gives it off slowly; the sock shapes around your neck, hands or feet.
How to do it
- Fill a clean cotton sock about 2/3 full with plain uncooked rice (not instant) and tie a knot.
- With no microwave: warm the dry rice in a pot over a safe heat source, stirring constantly for a few minutes until hot but not browning.
- Pour the warm rice into the sock with a funnel or folded paper, then tie it.
- Test it on the inside of your wrist before using it on a child.
Safety: Never put the sock itself over a flame. Rice can scorch and even smolder if overheated. Don't use on babies.
Source: Ready.gov: Winter Weather
Eat a snack and drink something warm before bed
Cost: Free; it's food you already have.
Why it works: Digesting food makes body heat, and fat and protein digest slowly, so the warmth lasts longer.
How to do it
- About an hour before sleep, eat a snack with some fat and protein (peanut butter, nuts, cheese, trail mix).
- Drink something warm, like broth or herbal tea.
- Keep drinking water during the day. Being dehydrated makes it harder to stay warm.
Safety: Hot drinks are a spill and burn risk in a dark room; use a lidded mug.
Source: Ready.gov: Winter Weather
Layer up (and wear a hat to bed)
Cost: Free using clothes you own; thrift-store wool sweaters are a few dollars.
Why it works: Several layers trap warm air better than one thick layer, and dry clothing insulates far better than damp. A hat covers skin that's usually left bare.
How to do it
- Wear a base layer of wool or synthetic fabric, then a fleece or sweater, then a windproof layer if needed.
- Avoid cotton next to your skin; once it gets damp from sweat it pulls heat away.
- Change into dry socks and dry base layers before bed.
- Wear a knit hat and, if needed, gloves to sleep.
Safety: Don't overdress into a sweat, then get chilled. Watch for shivering, confusion or slurred speech (signs of hypothermia).
Source: Ready.gov: Winter Weather
Share body heat (and pets count)
Cost: Free.
Why it works: Each person gives off roughly as much heat as a 100-watt bulb. Packed together in a small space, that adds up.
How to do it
- Sleep close together in the same room, or in the same bed for older kids and adults.
- Unzip two sleeping bags and zip them together into one big bag.
- Let pets sleep on top of the covers.
Safety: Infants should not sleep in an adult bed. Keep them in their own crib or bassinet in the same room, dressed warmly.
Source: Ready.gov: Winter Weather
Emergency space blankets (Mylar) and reflectors
Cost: About $1-2 each in packs.
Why it works: Mylar reflects radiant heat back toward you. It does nothing to create heat, so it's a helper layer, not a blanket replacement.
How to do it
- Lay a Mylar emergency blanket shiny side up under your sleeping bag or on the tent floor.
- Or wrap it around your sleeping bag (not directly on skin, where sweat builds up).
- If you have a radiator that still works (for example, a gravity hot-water system), foil-covered cardboard behind it, facing the room, bounces heat back in.
Safety: Crinkly and tears easily. Keep it away from flames and heaters.
Source: Ready.gov: Build a Kit
Use only heaters rated for indoor use
Cost: Indoor-rated portable propane heaters run roughly $70-150, plus propane.
Why it works: Indoor-certified heaters are designed and tested to burn cleanly and shut off if oxygen drops or they tip.
How to do it
- Only use heaters labeled for indoor use, such as indoor-certified propane heaters with automatic low-oxygen and tip-over shutoff.
- Read the manual and follow its ventilation rule (many say to crack a window about an inch).
- Keep 3 feet of clear space around the heater.
- Put a battery-powered carbon monoxide alarm in the same room and test it.
- Turn it off before you go to sleep or leave the room.
Safety: Any fuel-burning heater makes carbon monoxide. A CO alarm is not optional. Store fuel outside the living space.
MYTH: It's okay to heat with a grill, gas oven, camp stove or generator if you open a window
Cost: Free to follow; a battery CO alarm is about $20-30.
The truth: Not a trick. Opening a window or garage door does not clear carbon monoxide fast enough. CO is invisible and odorless and kills people in every major power outage.
What to do instead
- The truth: never use a charcoal or gas grill, camp stove, gas oven or generator to heat your home, garage, basement or porch.
- Run generators outside only, at least 20 feet from the house, with the exhaust pointed away from doors, windows and vents.
- If anyone gets a headache, dizziness, nausea or confusion, get everyone outside to fresh air and call 911.
Safety: This is the most important rule in this whole list.
MYTH: You lose most of your body heat through your head
Cost: Free.
The truth: The old '40-50%' claim came from a military test where people wore insulated suits with their heads uncovered.
What to do instead
- The truth: your head loses heat at about the same rate as any other uncovered skin, roughly 7-10% of your total.
- Still wear a hat, because your head is often the only part left uncovered.
- Put your energy into covering everything: core, hands, feet and head.
Safety: Covering your head still matters; it's just not magic.
Source: Live Science: Do we really lose half our body heat from our heads?
MYTH: A clay flowerpot over tea lights will heat a room
Cost: The 'cheap heater' costs a few dollars in candles a day and gives almost nothing back.
The truth: Basic physics: the heat you get out can't be more than the candles put in. The pot only changes when you feel it.
What to do instead
- The truth: a tea light gives off about 30 watts of heat. A small space heater gives about 1,500 watts.
- The pot does not add heat. It just soaks up the candle heat and lets it out more slowly.
- Four tea lights under a pot is about 120 watts total, about like an old light bulb. It won't warm a room in an outage.
Safety: Fire hazard: pots can crack, and pooled hot wax can flare up. You're better off putting that money into a good sleeping bag.
MYTH: Candles can heat a room in a power outage
Cost: N/A
The truth: Candles do make some heat, but nowhere near enough to warm a room safely.
What to do instead
- The truth: a regular candle gives off around 80 watts and a tea light about 30. You'd need dozens of them burning to match one small space heater.
- Dozens of open flames in a home is a serious fire and smoke risk.
- Use battery lights for light. Put your effort into insulation, layers, sleeping bags and one warm room.
Safety: Candle fires spike during outages and holidays. Never leave a candle unattended or near fabric, and never use one inside a tent or fort.
Source: NFPA: Candle Safety