Winter storms and power outages: staying warm when the grid goes down

Pick one room and defend it

Heating a whole house without power is not realistic. Choose a small interior room, ideally with few windows and on a lower floor, and move everyone into it, pets included. Close doors to the rest of the house and stuff towels along the gaps at the bottom.

Hang blankets over windows at night and take them down during the day if sun reaches the glass. Put anything insulating on the floor: rugs, sleeping bags, couch cushions. Bodies plus a small space stay warm far longer than most people expect.

Safe heat and deadly heat

• Safe: a properly vented wood stove or fireplace, a gas furnace with battery backup, an indoor-rated propane heater with an oxygen depletion sensor used with a cracked window, and layers of clothing.
• Never: a charcoal or gas grill indoors, a camp stove indoors, a generator in a garage or near a window, or an oven left open for heat. Every one of these produces carbon monoxide, which you cannot smell, and every one of them kills people during winter outages.
• Put a battery-powered carbon monoxide alarm in the room where you are sleeping. This is the cheapest life-saving purchase in this entire guide.

Dress for it

Layers of loose clothing trap air, which is what actually insulates. Wool and synthetics keep insulating when damp; cotton stops. A hat matters indoors, and dry socks matter more than an extra sweater. Change out of anything that becomes damp with sweat, because damp clothing pulls heat out of you fast.

Protecting the pipes

• Open cabinet doors under sinks so warmer room air reaches the pipes.
• Let faucets on exterior walls drip. Moving water is much harder to freeze, and the drip also relieves the pressure that actually bursts pipes.
• Know where the main shutoff valve is and make sure it turns before you need it in the dark.
• If a pipe freezes, thaw it with a hair dryer or warm towels, never an open flame.

Food, water, and phones

• A closed refrigerator holds safe temperatures about four hours; a full freezer about 48 hours, a half-full one about 24.
• In freezing weather, a cooler on a shaded porch is an excellent second refrigerator.
• Fill bathtubs and jugs before the storm arrives. Outages can knock out municipal pumps, and well pumps stop with the power.
• Keep phones charged and use them sparingly: text rather than call, since texts get through congested networks better.

Before you go outside

Shoveling heavy wet snow causes heart attacks every winter, particularly in people who do not otherwise exert themselves. Push rather than lift, take breaks, and stop if you feel chest pressure or unusual shortness of breath. Ice under fresh snow is the other quiet hazard: walk flat-footed with short steps.

Sources

• Ready.gov winter weather
• CDC carbon monoxide guidance

Keep reading

• Hurricane season, week by week: a preparedness checklist that is not overwhelming
• Building a 72-hour emergency kit on a real budget