Before the Lights Go Out

Nov 1, 2026 · preparedness

Every fall the outage lists start going around, and most of them are just shopping lists. Twenty things in a row, no order to them, like the store wrote it. A game and a gadget sit right up top, and the thing that can actually hurt your family is down at number fourteen, if it’s on there at all.

Here’s a better way to sort it. Put first what can hurt you. Then what keeps you warm, lit, and watered. Then, and only then, what just makes a dark house nicer to sit in. That’s the necessities first way this whole site runs on, and an outage list is where it matters most.

First on the list, before everything, is carbon monoxide. It’s a quiet danger with no smell, and it shows up right when folks start doing desperate things for heat. A generator belongs outside, away from windows, never in a garage. A grill never comes inside. A gas oven is not a heater. And the thing that stands guard over all of it is an alarm that works. A combined smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, like this First Alert with the ten year sealed battery, covers the hallway and the bedrooms in one unit. And a plain battery carbon monoxide alarm with a digital readout, like this Kidde, earns its spot near the sleeping rooms too, so you can see a problem building before the alarm ever has to sound. Check the dates on the alarms you’ve got now while you’re at it. An alarm past its years is just a plastic box on the wall.

Second is heat, and the trick is one room, not the whole house. Pick the smallest room with a door, get everybody in it, hang blankets over the doorway if you need to, and dress in layers with something on your head. A house loses a fight with an ice storm. One room can win it. We wrote a whole post on this one already when we talked about heat with the power out, and it still holds: small room, safe heat, close the rest off.

Third is light. Flashlights are good for walking around, but a lantern is what lights a room so a family can eat, read, and not trip over each other for three nights running. Battery lanterns that fold down small, like these Lepro lanterns, are easy to stash one in the warm room and one in the kitchen. Whatever you pick, count your batteries the same day you buy it. A lantern with dead batteries is a paperweight with a handle.

Fourth is water, and I’ll keep this short because we just did a whole post on it. When the power stops, a well stops with it. A gallon a person a day, put back ahead of time, is the whole ballgame.

And one chore belongs on the before list while the weather is still good: the fuel. Gas that sits all year goes stale, and stale gas is how a generator lets you down on the one night you need it. If you store gas for a generator or a saw, a fuel stabilizer like STA-BIL Storage keeps it usable a whole lot longer. Treat the gas when you fill the can, not when the lights flicker.

Then comes the comfort row, and it’s allowed to be last. Board games and cards. Books. Snacks that don’t need cooking. A power bank for a phone. All good things, and they’ll matter on night two. They just don’t get to jump the line ahead of an alarm that keeps your kids safe on night one.

Proverbs 21:20 says, “There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up.” The wise man’s house has oil stored because he put it there on purpose, in the right order, before he needed it. That’s all this list is asking. Not more money. Better order.

So here’s the small homework. This week, walk your house and check your alarms. Then write your own list in the right order: safe first, warm and lit and watered second, comfortable last. When the lights go out some ice cold night, you won’t be shopping in your head. You’ll just be working the list.

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