Emergency Prep: Surviving a 6-Day Power Outage At Home

Imagine a power outage that lasts for an entire week – how would you cope with it? With this emergency prep guide and free checklist, you’ll learn everything we discovered to stay safe, comfortable, and productive during a lengthy power outage at our farmhouse. Use our lists and experiences to make your own essential power outage emergency preparation plan to make sure you’re fully stocked to weather the storm when disaster strikes.

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In a typical January where we live in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, our winter weather usually consists of gray skies, some rain, and temperatures between 30F and 50F degrees.

So when back-to-back ice storms of freezing rain hit our area in January of 2024 with temperatures in the 20s for days, you can imagine that our above ground power lines on wood poles didn’t stand a chance.

They fell in a matter of hours on a Saturday during the first batch of freezing rain (up to an inch like you see in the photo above!) and all the power companies eventually lost power to large swaths of our community.

Even more power poles snapped in two during the second winter storm the following Wednesday night (one section of road near us held 18 snapped poles!). The poor linemen had no way of keeping up even though they were out there 24/7.

In total we were without power for six long days (and nights – brrr). The most we’d been powerless in the past had been five days, but that was when we had a wood stove in our cottage and it was an odd situation with our neighbors having power so we could run an extension cord to our freezer when their power came back. So this was significant for us.

Previous Power Outage Experiences

It’s not unusual to be without power here, but it’s typically only 1-3 days. And while it’s been happening more (the companies are turning power off during fire season at times to avoid starting fires, so it’s not just winter storms), it’s been a couple years since we’ve had a significant outage.

After our first 3-day outage here at the farmhouse, we realized that not having a wood stove or fireplace (are we the only 1900 farmhouse without any wood heat?) was a huge handicap to staying in our home, so we purchased a Firman 7500 watt gas generator (similar to this slightly more powerful one).

Which we then didn’t need for three years.

So when we heard the weather report, Brian tried to start the generator, but it wouldn’t. He cleaned it out, ran conditioner through it, and…still wouldn’t start.

And when the power went out around 2:30pm, we just bundled up and gathered our other supplies thinking a propane heater we got would provide heat (a LOT more on this later). It did not.

So when Brian went outside to use our propane griddle to make burgers, he randomly tried the generator again and – praise be – it started!

So now we had a generator, so all would be well, right?

Oh, we had so much to learn!

It’s when I mentioned this on Instagram that I started getting comments and DM’s from people asking me to write about the things we found out about surviving a long power outage at home.

I’m pretty sure we will be facing more power outages all over the country in the future. It’s my hope that these tips, lessons, and the free checklist of things we found most helpful will guide you in preparing your own plan to survive at home during any outage you may have.

What this list is NOT

This is not a survival kit for when you have to leave home. For that you would need a grab-and-go type of bag with supplies for your family that you would take with you in case of evacuation.

That’s a different kind of list (though there are similar items on both) – if you’d like to put together a pack to take away from home, this site has good info on what to include.

What We Learned During 6 Days Without Power at Home

1. How to use a generator

The two most important things we learned are:

• Keep it clean and running even when you don’t need it. Here’s a good maintenance list to start with.
• Know the load it can handle: First, read the directions and know the wattage of the generator you have (higher wattage = more power to run things, and more expensive generator). Then know wattage of the appliances and devices you will need and then cycle through them, unplugging before turning another thing on.

These were key things we didn’t really think about as generator newbies. When we got it running, we just plugged everything into the main extension cord and power strip: fridge, wifi, cooking and heating things that combined were probably more than the wattage we had.

We shorted it out when heating soup on our little induction burner and found out through our brother-in-law that we needed to cycle through things and think about wattage. After that – no more shorts!

Other things to think about:

• The machine itself is heavy and not easy to move.
• The gallons of gas are heavy and pouring them in is messy and takes strength (we’re sticking with 2.5 and 5 gallon gas containers to keep them more manageable).
• You want enough wattage to run the heaters you need, plus appliances. Ours is a 5500/7500 watt Firman which we were pretty happy with (this version is the closest I could find to ours, which I guess they don’t make anymore?).

The recommendation is to not run the generator 24/7, but to allow it times to cool off. During these cooling times is when its suggested to refill it with gas. It’s also suggested to never let it just run out of gas on it’s own and turn off.

• While we chose not to run it at night while we slept (we had heaps of blankets to keep us cozy in bed), I know others in my family didn’t ever turn theirs off and the generators were fine.
• If it ran out of gas in the middle of the day, we’d try and go 10-15 minutes before filling and turning on again. It was so cold that we couldn’t let the part of the house we were heating get too cold again and we figured the 20 degrees outside was cooling it, too!
• And we almost always let it just run out – really we had no way of knowing, since there’s no gage on our model. It would start it’s dying noise but we couldn’t even get to it before it would peter out.

2. How much gas you need for a generator

We had NO IDEA the amount of time and money we would need to run the generator, especially since we needed it for a 1500watt heater that we couldn’t cycle through like the other things.

We needed 6-7 gallons of gas a DAY (of course when we ran everything all at once the first day, we used that amount in less than a day – yikes!).

We also didn’t think about storing enough gas for 2-3 days in case it was hard to find a station open – or get to one in icy conditions.

The second morning when we needed gas, all the stations in our little town and our neighboring small down were out of power, too. Thankfully we found a station on the edge Eugene that was open and we could reach from the old highway (the freeway was blocked for the first 2 days in our area completely!).

LESSON LEARNED: We need to keep 20 to 25 gallons of gas on hand for the generator. We can use it up over the summer with the mower so it will be fresh each winter.

3. Propane vs. Gas

We didn’t even think about this beforehand, but now I want to tell everyone:

If you choose a propane generator you have to fill (vs. a large tank you have filled by a truck) you will potentially spend HOURS in a single line to the single propane take at the random station that will have one.

If you use gas, any station that is open will have it and there are always more than one tank, so you will spend only minutes in comparison.

It was awful to see the lines of people in the 20 degree temps desperately waiting to get their tanks filled – I felt so bad for them.

This real-life scenario totally negates the pros of propane (stores longer, more efficient) in my opinion, so that’s something to think about.

For Propane Grills & Griddles: These, on the other hand, are very useful as another way to cook your food in an outage. My brother found that having 2 tanks – a full one and another partially full – was enough for the days he was without power (using a couple times a day to cook and heat water).

4. Water

The other thing besides gas that we had to get almost daily was water. We ran out of the stored drinking water we had after just two days.

We are also on a well and our generator wasn’t yet hooked up to be able to run the well (we’re fixing that!), so there was no water to flush toilets.

My sister in town never lost her power so we were able to go there for hot showers and to fill up 5 gallon buckets for drinking and flushing water.

On day five the temperatures warmed enough to start melting the ice and the rains came, so we captured rain water for the toilets the last couple of days.

Let me just say – hauling 5 gallon buckets of water on ice? Not the best thing. My poor brother fell numerous times since his yard is sloped.

LESSONS LEARNED: Start storing larger amounts of water, either store bought or from our well (I’m choosing to use gallon glass jugs because of the leaching of plastic when it gets warm in storage). And get a cord and a safety switch to our electrical panel to be able to use the generator to power the well pump (on a cycle, of course!) or get a rain barrel to capture water.

Oh, another thing – even one of the bigger towns near us had issues with their water and everyone had to boil it before using for anything. But without power? So storing water is a good idea even if you’re not on a well!

5. Heating

If you have a wood stove or fireplace, then heating during a power outage isn’t much of an issue as long as you have enough wood.

You may have to camp out in front of your fireplace, but at least you have a source of warmth.

I’ve had readers tell me that their propane gas fireplaces provide heat, but my only experience with those is the kind with electric fans to push the heat out, which obviously don’t work without power.

Whatever the case may be, you’ll need to give major thought to heating at least a main room in your home.

LESSONS LEARNED: Well, besides the big one on the propane heater, we found that once we got the generator going a 1500 watt portable heater with a fan (shown in the photo above) was the most comfortable (you could put your hands and toes in front to warm up quickly) and heated our living room the best. We tried an 800 watt oil filled electric heater (you can see on the left above), but it’s such a slow burn we never felt anything from it. And when it’s 25 degrees, that matters!

We also are researching the possibility of adding a small wood stove to the dining room. It’s not cheap, so we really need to weigh all the factors, but we do have a lot of free wood after all the branches we lost in the storm.

6. Fridge, Freezer & Food

Full freezers and refrigerators weigh a LOT. Our plugs are on the back wall, so both had to be pulled out which was especially hard with the full freezer. And once it was out, we left it there, which blocked our back door, leaving us only the front door into the living room to go in and out of (like I mentioned, not ideal for heating).

What We’ve Done: Having an electrician tap into our electrical panel to hook up the generator in the future means we can use fuse switches to cycle through turning the fridge on. Since our freezer is on a circuit we may need more often, we found a way to access the plug (we cut a hole in the side panel we used to make it look built in that’s hidden from view) so we can unplug it without moving it.

How long does the food in deep freezers last?

The typical recommendation for freezers is if the freezer door is kept closed, “the food should stay safe to eat for 72 hours into a blackout.” However, our extended family’s actual experience was longer – and especially for chest freezers.

When the power is back on, check it first and if the food is still cold, even if its defrosted, it’s okay to eat. Depending on what it is, you may not want to refreeze it (like green beans), but breads (they don’t even have to be cold) and meats should be fine. So don’t automatically toss everything – use your senses of smell, sight, and touch to tell you if something is good or not.

Food:

This was a good way to learn what types of food I had stocked and preserved that were easiest to make and eat in this type of situation.

You’ll find specific foods we ate regularly that I will make sure to stock more of in the future below in the lists section, but in general having fruits and vegetables both canned and fresh, protein sources like canned meats, jerky, peanut butter, eggs and cheese made it easy to put meals together. I was also grateful for the condiments I had – especially tomato chutney that makes pretty much anything taste better! And don’t forget about chocolate or other treat your family likes.

LESSONS LEARNED: Stock easy to access and make foods. Power outages are a time when you typically can’t access frozen foods (unless you have a generator), so be sure to stock canned chicken and tuna as well as some canned veggies that you normally like to eat (three bean salad was a winner for us). If you can shop while your power is still out, buy the trays of cut up vegetables, sliced cheese and lunch meat. It’s one time to actually go for the convenience foods.

7. Other Things We Learned

Here are a few more things we found that made it easier to live through cold temperatures (even with the heater, our living room never got above 52 degrees) and no power:

• Wifi Through Towers vs. Cables. What kind of wifi and phone service do you have? We have T-Mobile wifi which is through a cell tower unlike cable services. Which means that when their cables came down with the power poles, they couldn’t provide wifi. Our wifi never went out, which was SO helpful since we both work from home.
• Lanterns vs. Flashlights. I’m not sure if this is really a debate, but after this we are firmly on team lantern. We already had this LED lantern that uses D batteries that we had bought for power outages and were impressed when it lasted the whole time we were without power! Flashlights cannot be set down easily and when you do they light the ceiling or your shirt. So we decided to stock another lantern in our emergency bin (so that the person left in one room wouldn’t be in the dark, lol), but found that not all lanterns are created equal! I tried one that was so bright I couldn’t look at it AND it only took AA batteries (which is fine for a short camping trip, but won’t last an extended outage). So I bought another of the one that worked so well (it has a diffuser and two light levels for brightness).
• Headlamps. Great for hands-free things, but again like flashlights the light only goes where your head is pointed (and sometimes is in your eyes). It’s another good option, but Brian liked the flexibility of the lantern when filling the generator in the dark.
• Types of clothes for extreme cold are best. I lived in leggings layered under fleece-lined ski pants – I was on the verge of giving away those ski pants and I’m so glad I didn’t! Layers are another important thing – silk undershirts (which I wear all winter anyway!), wool t-shirts or light sweaters, bigger wool sweaters or fleece jackets.
• Puffy down slippers. My toes were numb or cold for the first three days even with two layers of wool socks and my thickest slippers. Then my sister loaned me a pair of puffy down booties and no more cold toes!! They were the only thing that worked. I’ve discovered these aren’t cheap (and when searching, most that come up aren’t actually down), but this pair I found on Etsy look promising.
• Gloves that work with devices. I didn’t get these until our power came back, but I won’t be without them again! I needed gloves most of the time and scrolling to read on my iPad was hilarious when I had to wear the gloves I had half off so my thumb could scroll.
• Books on iPads and Kindles are much easier to read than paper books in the dim light of lanterns and candles. Another good reason to stock up on a few ebooks, right?
• Walking safely. I’ve ordered these simple ice cleats shoe covers to be able to walk on freezing rain slicked surfaces (the best reviewed). This became a must-have item after realizing the multiple times a day we had to go out to the generator.
• Induction cooktop. When we got our generator going this is what allowed us to heat up canned soup, boil water for pasta, and more. (We moved to a Blackstone griddle/grill last summer, so no burner was available with propane like we had in the past. Though it was nice not to have to go outside to use a cooktop!)
• Electric kettle. We have this cute ceramic one (less plastic), but any electric kettle would work. It heats water fast so uses less power and with it so cold I didn’t want to drink any cold water, so this got a workout.

Emergency Preparation Plan Lists

These are the things that specifically helped us in our six day power outage. Use the lists as a jumping off point to create your own plan. You can go here to see a list of traditional emergency kit ideas (many of which are needed if you can’t stay in your home).

Food & Supplies

Main Tips: Think about options for easy vegetables and protein. Stock your cupboards with what you normally like to eat – just make sure to buy a few more in case of emergencies. When it’s something you normally eat, you will naturally use them up and restock when shopping so that they never expire.

• Canned chicken and tuna
• Canned vegetables: the home canned three bean salad (this is on my publishing schedule!), pickled beans and cucumbers in our pantry and fridge really worked for us.
• Canned soup: the home canned tomato soup I had made last summer was the winner (again, another recipe I’m planning to share). Look for high quality soups you would normally eat. Easy, warm food is key in a cold power outage.
• Dried fruit: I was so glad to have dried plums and dried cherries available. I find them much better than canned fruit.
• Canned applesauce: home canned or store bought it provides fiber and nutrients in a super convenient form.
• Fresh fruit: we had apples and Cuties mandarins which lasted the whole time. The apples were especially good with nut butter to get some easy protein.
• Bread: I was so glad for the sourdough artisan and sandwich bread I had made and stocked in the freezer!
• Cheese: another source of easy protein. Grilled cheese sandwiches were so easy to make and was a nice hot food.
• Nuts
• Peanut butter, almond butter or any nut butter
• Lunch meat or cooked meat you can easily reach (we found that although we could open our freezer for the cooked rotisserie chicken I always keep on hand, it wouldn’t defrost in the cold house easily!)
• Jerky: we get larger bags of this from Costco and it was a lifesaver to get more protein throughout the day.
• Granola or other cereal + milk or yogurt (you can store some boxed milks if you need a shelf stable option).
• Eggs: these were another easy, healthy meal maker! I could scramble them or make a frittata easily on the burner, adding whatever veggies we needed to use.
• Pasta sauce: every year I make my much-loved freezer roasted tomato sauce AND I make a batch or two of canned pasta sauce for a shelf stable option which totally was worth it this year (because we discovered defrosting anything in a room that’s about 40 degrees isn’t really happening…).
• Dry pasta: I stock Banza pasta for the extra protein it contains.
• Easy prep vegetables: bagged spinach and lettuce, cut veggies, baby carrots
• Hummus: just so easy to eat with veggies and a source of protein.
• Chocolate! A piece of dark chocolate goes a long way for our mental health in situations like this, right?

Also think about a stock of paper plates and disposable flatware to keep on hand because heating water and washing dishes is a pain without power – especially a long outage!

Basics To Have On Hand

• Light: lanterns with at least C or D batteries (AAs last only 2-3 days); flashlight or headlamp for going outside. Candles are okay, but very dim so not necessary – we did use jar candles in the bathroom to keep a bit of light there after dark until we went to bed.
• Drinkable water: the recommendation is 1 gallon per person, per day to cover drinking and sanitation like brushing teeth. I’m getting glass containers even though FEMA doesn’t recommend it because I just don’t really trust plastic with water in fluctuating temperatures while stored (stainless would be nice but is way more expensive).
• Water for toilets if on a well: easiest to use 5 gallon buckets – will need 2-4 per day, depending on the size of your toilet tanks and amount of people in your house.
• Large food cooler, optional: you will need to transfer your perishable foods (not usually condiments) from the fridge to a cooler kept outside if you do not have a power source after one day without power.
• Old flannel sheets for doorways and windows if curtains aren’t thick
• Gloves you can use with devices
• Clothes: ski pants or layers of pants, down slippers
• Shoe cover cleats for walking in ice
• Quality batteries: not dollar store – we found they only lasted half the time as name brands.
• Device chargers if no generator (or want to save gas).

Things to Have With a Generator/Power Source

• Electric kettle: boils water faster and you will be so thankful to hold something warm.
• Electric cooktop and/or electric skillet: easier to cook inside when it’s really cold to grill outside.
• Extension cords: long heavy duty cords to come from generator (ours can hold 2) to the house (if not wired into house) and good quality cords to run appliances, wifi, and heaters. Note: Get the cord that works for your generator. For example if the most powerful outlet on the generator is 30-amps and 4-prong, you should be sure to get a 30-amps and 4-prong power cord.
• Power strip: makes it easy to remove and connect cords to cycle through appliances in order to not overload your generator.

Heat

• Gas generator (see above why I don’t recommend propane): at least a 5000w to run a 1500w main heater and 800w smaller heater (plus your other appliances, rotating through. Have enough gas for 2-3 days before needed to go get more.
• Wood Stove or fire place.
• Battery “power station” Cons: these are usually expensive and only have about 300-1300w power that doesn’t last more than a day or two, depending on usage (though there are optional solar charging panels). Pros: The benefits are that you can easily carry them, they can be used inside and will power devices and needed appliances like CPAP machines, and the solar option. We are looking into one of these as another tool to use.
• Solar Charger: this portable solar charger is what I’ve seen recommended as the most powerful. It’s a decent price and the recommendation is to purchase a battery pack to store the power created during the day to use at night (like this one with USB-A and USB-C ports).

Solar Note: while we are looking into battery power options and solar charging, it’s worth mentioning that during our outage we never saw the sun once. In fact the first four days were so socked in we couldn’t see the hills from our windows. While the chargers might’ve gotten a bit of charge from the daylight, it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

Other Important Things to Think About

• Have a Pet plan: sweater for dog, blankets for the bed, dry food they like.
• First aid kit or equivalent supplies
• Needed medicines: if you have warning of inclement weather, it’s worth it to get any prescriptions filled even if nothing happens. My nephew had a hard time getting some needed meds when the pharmacy he usually uses was out of power and a new pharmacy needed doctors orders. This is really worth planning for!
• Your loved ones: how can you help? When we were able we took food and water to some and my sister with power brought our mom to stay with her. It’s worth thinking how we can help, especially any older adults you know. We kept connected through a family text stream and social media.

How To Store Your Emergency Kit

This will look different for everyone – and remember, this is for surviving in your house, not in the case of an evacuation – but here are some ideas of storing your items:

In labeled lidded bin(s) stored in garage or outbuilding keep:

• Old flannel sheets or other covers for doors/windows.
• Extra lanterns (keep one in the house easy to reach when the power goes out).
• Ice cleat shoe covers
• Electric heater(s)
• Anything else you want kept only for emergencies that can be stored indefinitely (special extension cords, etc.)

In easy-to-reach place inside house, like a coat closet keep:

• Quality batteries, C, D, and AA
• Flashlight(s)
• Basic extension cords + power strip
• Battery device chargers
• Gloves to use with devices
• First aid kit

To store water and gas:

• Gas: use only the size of containers you can comfortably haul and tip (think: on icy surfaces!). Try to store 2-3 day supply in a cool place away from your house, if possible, to run your generator if stations around you are without power or you can’t get out of your driveway.
• Gas storage tip: fill all the containers at the end of fall so they will be ready in an emergency. If you don’t need them, use the gas in the summer to fill your lawn equipment. Keep the cycle going so that you’re not actually storing gas for more than 6-8 months at a time.
• Water: try to keep as much drinking water on hand that you can, either store-bought, unopened bottles, or those you fill yourself (you may need to sterilize it – read up before storing). Find the coolest place you have to store it and try to replenish yearly.
• Well water users: if you need water for toilets, consider installing a rain barrel to collect water that you can use in an emergency.

Okay, I think that’s it! If you made it this far, I’m proud of you, lol. I know this was long, but I wanted to make sure to cover all the things we learned and how we are adapting our approach to living without power. I hope all these resources are helpful!

Please don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comments or leave your best emergency prep tips – we’d all love to know!!

Don’t forget to grab your checklists to help you create your own plan!

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