Power Outage Checklist: What to Do in 24, 48 & 72 Hours

The First 10 Minutes: Stabilize the Situation

Do not immediately start connecting every appliance to a battery or generator. Spend the first few minutes identifying what happened and protecting people, food, equipment, and remaining energy.

Power Outage Timeline: 0 to 72 Hours

A useful outage checklist should be based on decisions, not just supplies. The right action at hour two may be wasteful or unsafe at hour 40.

0–4 Hours: Protect People, Food, and Information

• Use flashlights, headlamps, and rechargeable lanterns instead of candles.
• Verify that everyone in the home is safe and accounted for.
• Check weather alerts and utility restoration estimates.
• Keep the refrigerator and freezer closed.
• Charge phones only when needed rather than leaving them connected continuously.
• Run only essential backup loads.
• Fill clean containers with tap water if a storm or infrastructure problem may interrupt water service and local officials have not issued a contamination warning.
• Move trip hazards away from hallways, stairs, and exits.

If the outage is expected to last less than four hours, the safest approach is often to avoid disturbing cold food and conserve stored energy rather than immediately running large appliances.

4–24 Hours: Move From Reaction to Rationing

At four hours, food safety becomes a more active concern. The house may also begin heating or cooling significantly, especially during extreme weather.

• Evaluate refrigerated food rather than assuming everything remains safe.
• Use shelf-stable foods before opening the freezer repeatedly.
• Group family activity into one room to reduce lighting and comfort-power needs.
• Assign a daily drinking-water allowance while keeping additional water for food preparation, pets, medicine, and hygiene.
• Reduce the number of devices connected to backup power.
• Check indoor temperature, outdoor temperature, and the forecast.
• Contact vulnerable relatives or neighbors when safe to do so.
• Identify open cooling centers, warming centers, shelters, fuel stations, pharmacies, and grocery stores.

24–48 Hours: Treat It as an Extended Outage

• Review every household member's remaining water, food, medicine, and battery needs.
• Discard unsafe refrigerated perishables rather than relying on smell or appearance.
• Use freezer food that has begun thawing only when it remains at a safe temperature or still contains ice crystals.
• Recheck the utility restoration estimate instead of relying on an earlier message.
• Recharge backup batteries only through a safe, supported source.
• Use solar panels outdoors in unobstructed sunlight and within the power station's supported voltage and current limits.
• Preserve at least one charged phone or power bank for emergency communication.
• Decide whether staying is still safer than relocating.

This is also the point when improvised solutions become risky. Do not connect a portable power station or generator to a wall outlet to energize household wiring. Never create a homemade backfeed connection.

48–72 Hours: Reassess Whether the Home Is Still Habitable

• Calculate how many hours of drinking water remain.
• Check whether indoor temperature is becoming unsafe for children, older adults, pets, or people with health conditions.
• Verify access to working toilets, safe water, medicine, food, and communication.
• Review road conditions and shelter availability before traveling.
• Move remaining frozen food into a properly iced cooler only when doing so offers a real temperature benefit.
• Keep carbon monoxide alarms working anywhere fuel-burning equipment is in use nearby.
• Relocate before backup power, fuel, water, or medical supplies reach a critical level.

Refrigerator and Freezer Food Safety During an Outage

Food safety should be managed by time and temperature—not by smell, taste, or appearance. When in doubt, throw it out.

Foods That Usually Require the Most Caution

Meat, poultry, seafood, milk, soft cheeses, eggs, cooked leftovers, cut fruit, cooked rice, cooked pasta, creamy dressings, and many opened refrigerated foods can become unsafe even when they still look normal.

Condiments and other foods vary. Use the detailed item-by-item chart in the FoodSafety.gov power outage food chart rather than applying one rule to everything in the refrigerator.

How to Prepare Before the Next Outage

• Place appliance thermometers inside the refrigerator and freezer.
• Freeze containers of water to fill empty freezer space.
• Keep coolers and reusable ice packs ready.
• Photograph freezer contents so you do not need to hold the door open.
• Store shelf-stable meals that require little or no cooking.
• Read the complete power outage refrigerator and freezer food safety guide.

How Much Emergency Water Do You Need?

The CDC recommends storing at least one gallon of water per person per day for three days when possible. A two-week supply is preferable when storage space allows. More may be needed in hot weather, during pregnancy, for illness, for medical use, or for pets.

Source: CDC emergency water storage guidance.

Water Planning Mistakes to Avoid

• Counting carbonated drinks, alcohol, or highly caffeinated drinks as the main water supply.
• Forgetting water for pets, infant formula, medicine, wound cleaning, and food preparation.
• Assuming a private well will continue operating without electricity.
• Using floodwater, pool water, or questionable tap water for drinking without proper treatment.
• Waiting until stored water is nearly gone before identifying a safe refill source.

For storage amounts, container selection, treatment options, and household planning, read How Much Water Should You Store for a Power Outage?

Should You Stay Home or Leave?

Leaving is not automatically safer. Severe weather, flooded roads, downed lines, wildfire conditions, icy streets, and traffic congestion may make travel dangerous. The decision should be based on whether the home can safely support the people inside it.

What Should You Power First?

Backup power should be assigned according to consequence. A device is not essential merely because it is used every day.

For a more detailed priority method, see What to Run First During a Power Outage.

High-Wattage Loads That Can Empty a Battery Quickly

Portable power stations are generally better suited to targeted essential loads than continuous electric heating, whole-home air conditioning, electric water heaters, clothes dryers, large electric ranges, or other major household loads.

Adjust the Checklist for Your Home and Household

Apartment or Condo

• Never operate a combustion generator on a balcony, hallway, roof area, garage, or near another unit's doors or windows.
• Know how building entry, elevators, garage doors, water pumps, and access systems behave during an outage.
• Keep a flashlight and shoes beside the bed.
• Identify two exit routes in case stairwells are dark or obstructed.
• Use a portable power station only according to its indoor ventilation and operating instructions.

Home With a Private Well

A well may stop supplying water when its pump loses power. Many well pumps are hardwired, have substantial startup demand, or require 240 volts. Do not assume a small portable power station can operate one.

• Store drinking water before severe weather.
• Find the pump's running watts, startup watts, voltage, and connection type.
• Know whether toilets can be flushed manually with stored non-drinking water.
• Protect the pressure tank and plumbing according to the manufacturer's instructions during freezing weather.

Home With a Sump Pump

A sump pump can become a higher priority than food storage during heavy rain or flooding. Check the pump's startup demand and backup configuration before storm season. A battery system should be tested under realistic pump cycling rather than assumed to work from the wattage label alone.

Household With Medical Equipment

• Ask the equipment provider for the exact backup-power requirements.
• Test the complete setup before an emergency.
• Include humidifiers, heated tubing, pumps, chargers, and accessories in the power calculation.
• Keep provider, pharmacy, utility, emergency-contact, and transportation information on paper.
• Ask the utility whether a medical notification or priority program is available, while understanding that enrollment may not guarantee faster restoration.

CPAP users can also review the CPAP battery backup guide for power outages.

Household With Babies, Older Adults, or Pets

• Store additional water and ready-to-use food.
• Plan for formula preparation, medication, mobility aids, incontinence supplies, and temperature sensitivity.
• Keep pet carriers, leashes, medication, food, and water accessible.
• Identify pet-friendly shelters or lodging before an emergency.
• Do not leave children, older adults, or animals in a parked vehicle during extreme temperatures.

Winter Outage

• Close unused rooms and gather in a smaller occupied area.
• Wear layered, dry clothing and cover the head and feet.
• Prevent exposed pipes from freezing where possible.
• Do not use grills, generators, ovens, or camp stoves as indoor heaters.
• Leave before roads become impassable when indoor temperature cannot be maintained safely.

Summer Outage

• Close blinds on sun-facing windows during the hottest part of the day.
• Use efficient fans only when indoor conditions allow them to provide meaningful relief.
• Drink water regularly and monitor for heat illness.
• Use a safe cooling center when the home cannot remain tolerable.
• Never rely on a running vehicle inside a garage for air conditioning or device charging.

What to Do When the Power Comes Back On

Restoration is not the end of the checklist. Power can return briefly and fail again, and reconnecting every appliance at once can create unnecessary load.

1. Confirm that power is stable. Leave one light on and wait a few minutes before reconnecting sensitive or high-power devices.
2. Check for electrical damage. Do not use wet, scorched, sparking, unusually hot, or damaged outlets, cords, panels, or appliances.
3. Reconnect major loads gradually. Restore refrigerators, freezers, network equipment, HVAC controls, and other appliances in stages.
4. Inspect food. Use time and temperature records to decide what can be kept. Do not taste food to test safety.
5. Follow water notices. Continued utility power does not automatically cancel a boil-water or contamination advisory.
6. Recharge backup equipment. Recharge power stations, power banks, radios, lights, and medical-device batteries.
7. Restock consumed supplies. Replace water, shelf-stable food, batteries, medicine, pet supplies, and sanitation items.
8. Review what failed. Write down which appliance used more power than expected, what was difficult to find, and which supplies ran low.

Printable 24-, 48-, and 72-Hour Power Outage Checklist