Snow power? Preparing for winter power outages!

Winter is in full effect and the cold, wintery weather is here to stay for the next few months. This means the risk of winter-related power outages is also here to stay. Below are some practical actions you can take now to protect yourself and your family from power outage disruptions!

Stock up on water and nonperishable foods

During an outage, your refrigerator will keep food cold for about four hours, and a full freezer will keep the temperature for about 48 hours. If either reaches a temperature of 40 degrees or higher, the food is no longer safe to eat and should be thrown out. Power could be out for several days. So, to make sure you have food that is safe to eat, keep nonperishables like canned beans and protein bars in your home. You should also have plenty of water to last several days—you should have about one gallon of water per person per day.

Keep your phone charged

During a power outage, you don’t want to be caught with a close-to-dead phone battery! Having the ability to check the status of the power outage, contact emergency services, or even using that cellphone flashlight may get you through the outage safely. You may want to look into buying a small battery pack so you can charge devices like your phone when you’re without power. 

Plan for your medical needs

Whether it’s medication that needs to stay below a certain temperature or a medical device that runs on electricity, you need to plan on how you will keep your meds cold and your devices running during an outage. 

For refrigerated medication, only open your refrigerator when necessary to keep it cold inside for as long as possible. For medical devices, consider having a backup power source like a generator. If that isn’t possible, then review the device manual and find out how long, if at all, your device will work without electricity and how to make it last longer. Consider registering your medical device with MG&E. This may help inform or prioritize power restoration in areas where many customers rely on medical devices. 

The best way to manage during a power outage is to be prepared beforehand, there’s snow doubt about it!