Preparedness Plans
Turn supplies into a household plan that scales from hours to longer disruptions.
72-Hour Blackout Plan
Read the consolidated guide and follow related preparedness pathways.
7-Day Power Outage Plan
Read the consolidated guide and follow related preparedness pathways.
Long-Term Grid-Down Checklist
Read the consolidated guide and follow related preparedness pathways.
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Plan by duration
A short outage is mostly an information, lighting and refrigeration problem. As the disruption lengthens, water, sanitation, indoor temperature, medication, fuel and resupply become more important. Planning by duration helps you avoid treating every outage as either trivial or catastrophic.
| Window | Primary objective | Useful preparation |
|---|---|---|
| 0–6 hours | Establish safety and information | Lighting, alerts, phone power, cold-food discipline |
| 6–24 hours | Protect essentials | Battery budgeting, meals, temperature and medical continuity |
| 1–3 days | Household continuity | Water, sanitation, shelf-stable food and sustainable charging |
| 4–7 days | Resource management | Fuel, resupply, waste, communication redundancy and neighbor/family coordination |
Write down your triggers
Decide in advance what would make you change strategy: food reaching an unsafe temperature, indoor heat or cold becoming dangerous, a medical-device battery reaching a threshold, local officials issuing evacuation instructions, or water service becoming unsafe. Pre-decided triggers reduce improvisation under stress.
Make the plan household-specific
A useful plan records names, contact methods, medical or accessibility dependencies, pets, likely outage-season weather and the location of important supplies. It should also say who checks the utility status, who manages cold food, and who contacts relatives if normal communication becomes unreliable.
Keep a paper copy where household members can find it without a phone. Review it after a real outage: what ran out first, what was difficult to locate, and which equipment was unnecessary? That experience should improve the same plan rather than create another checklist.