What Every Home Needs for an Extended Power Outage

Emergency preparedness advice has long centered on a simple metric: Keep enough food, water, and other necessities on hand to last three days.But for an extended power outage, that may no longer be enough.“A three-day emergency kit is still a good starting point, but I’d consider it the minimum rather than the actual goal,” says Brian Armentrout of Chariot Energy. “In Texas, we’ve seen severe weather events where power outages and other disruptions can last well beyond 72 hours.”It’s not just a Texas problem. Close to 375,000 customers lost power after severe storms tore through Northwest Indiana earlier this month. While most had electricity restored within days, some were still waiting nearly two weeks later.In January, a historic ice storm knocked out power to more than 330,000 customers across Mississippi and Louisiana. Again, while most had power restored within days, some waited closer to the two-week mark for service to return.But preparing for that type of emergency requires more than just accurately estimating how long you'll be waiting for the power to come back on. It also also means thinking through what your household needs if the systems you normally take for granted ...