A Survival Guide on What to Do in a Blackout
When a major and sustained blackout strikes here in the UK, having a clear action plan is essential. This guide is tailored specifically for those in the UK and will hopefully provide practical steps on what to do in a blackout. You’ll learn how to navigate through a sustained and prolonged blackout effectively and without the need to panic.
What to do in a Blackout or Powercut
We’re going to break down this guide into the following steps or stages; by the end you’ll be positioned significantly better to deal with and know what to do in a blackout across the UK.
- Assess the Situation
- Immediate Actions and Things to Do
- Communications Strategy
- Food and Water Management
- Staying Warm and Heating the Home
- Staying Entertained and Sleeping
- Monitor and Repeat
- [BONUS] Ways to Prepare for the Next Blackout
- What to do in a Blackout – A Summary
As you can see by this step-by-step plan, by the end you’ll know what to do in a blackout.
Assess the Situation
First thing we need to do, is realise if we’re actually in a blackout. Power interruptions and brief power cuts would make up the majority of any power issues we face in a given time period. Thankfully those power interruptions are very brief and require little action to be taken. If the power is out over a much wider area, something significant has happened and it’s very likely you’ll need to take immediate action.
First off, check your fuses / circuit breaker or electrical box to see if you’ve blown a fuse and tripped the whole property. If not, or alternatively, head up to a higher floor and look out. When it’s dusk or dark out, do other properties nearby have lights on?
If you’re still unsure (maybe its light outside), find a neighbour who’s in and ask them.
Also, check your mobile. Do you still have signal? If there’s no signal where you would normally get a decent signal, that probably points to a much wider problem.
Power Outage on a Wider Scale
If you’ve confirmed the local power is out at a street / neighbourhood level, message (SMS and Wifi comms like WhatsApp, Telegram etc) multiple people who live on the other side of the city, or in a nearby town. Are they having problems? If they are, this is likely to be a widespread issue needing you to take action.
Briefly run a tap (2-5seconds) – do you have running water and pressure? Does the water still run clean and with pressure after 5 seconds? If you use gas for cooking – is there still mains gas?
If you still have a mobile connection to the internet, check if there is a) anything in the news and b) if your network operator is reporting any issues. Note you can find your power network operator here, as it is NOT the company you pay electricity for. Companies like British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON UK, Npower and ScottishPower are just SELLING you electricity, they don’t maintain or have any say about the actual power lines etc. Do not ring your operate – it’ll be a waste of your phones battery.
Check to see if the National Grid has posted any statements on Twitter/X
Immediate Actions and Things to Do
So we’ve established this may be a much wider issue and have decided its time to act; so what are the first crucial actions on what do to in a blackout?
Stay Calm
If you begin to panic, you won’t think clearly and are likely to take steps that are negative to your survival. Thinking clearly right now, even a prolonged period of power outage in the UK isn’t likely to significantly effect your wellbeing is it? If you’re calm, take some logical steps and are home, you’ll likely be able to go 24 hours without any issue at all.
Longer than that – that’s what you’re reading this article for!
Occam’s Razor
Try to ascertain what is going on that could impact the power grid using Occam’s Razor. This is the principle that, when presented with multiple unknown scenarios, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. I.e. is there heavy snow in the local area? What about a severe storm planned to the hit the UK? Both of these should be fairly obvious. Is it a day of national importance, or on the lead up to one, such as a general election? This could suggest maybe a cyber-attack or other social-political reason for the outage. It won’t directly help your situation by labeling the reason for the outage, but it may help stay calm and explain it to any dependencies.
Intel Gathering
Use a battery-powered or hand-crank emergency radio to get news updates on what is happening and potentially the expected duration of the widespread blackout. If you’re struggling to find anything on the radio talking about it – that’s good news! That means it’s more local than widespread. It also means you can use the radio for entertainment rather than updates on the power doomsday.
If you don’t have a wind-up survival radio, like the FosPower 5200mAh radio (pictured) that we recommend and is ideal for this situation, a car radio will work just fine (just don’t run it for extended periods).
Turn Off Appliances
It’s very likely, especially during the day, that you have multiple appliances running when the power went out. Now it’s a good time to go around the house and make sure those are switched off – think ovens, hobs, irons, kettles, washing machines etc. This will protect them and your home electrical circuit from surges and spikes when the power is restored. For ovens, hobs and irons alike, it also minimises the chance of fires breaking out when the blackout ends.
Grab Some Water
I would take this moment to fill up several bottles, or pans, with water from the tap. If the blackout is going to last for several days, the water distribution network is very likely to fail. Their pumps and filters only have a short emergency backup generator period. Grab the water while it still flows.
Communications Strategy
If you haven’t already, try to contact (SMS and WhatsApp etc) people a decent distance from you. Maybe the other side of the city, or a neighbouring town. If they’re reporting outages, try further a field. If its national, you don’t need any more detail than that.
Contact Loved Ones
Now contact loved ones and vulnerable dependacies. That may just involve crossing the street and speaking with a neighbour, or sending SMS messages to children, grand parents etc. Check they understand what is going on, some basic steps to take, and if they have anything you can help with. Keep it short to conserve power.
Tell them you’ll communicate via SMS and decide a schedule to check in on them. Maybe every 3 hours during the day, on the hour (i.e. 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm) That way everyone can use their devices as little as possible, conserving energy.
If they’re local, maybe arrange to meet up and sharing resources if the power blackout lasts 24, 48 or 72 hours etc.
Activate Power Saving Mode
Importantly, once you’ve done that, activate your phones power saving mode. This will disable all unnecessary and power hungry tasks, making your smart phone ‘dumb’ again, but giving you a lot more battery life. Your phone’s battery may go from 4-6hrs left, to over 24hours!
Step-by-step instructions for activating power saving mode on Android [Power Saving Mode Guide] and iPhone [Low Power Mode Guide] are found here. You will still receive SMS messages, but not messages from WhatsApp, Telegram, Teams etc. That’s why its important to tell those you contact to also use SMS.
If you’ve got a portable solar-panel source, like the aforementioned FosPower 5200mAh radio or the amazing 36,000mAh Solar Battery Charger (pictured), you’ll obviously be less reliant on your stored phones battery. But relying on one piece of tech (the phone, the charger etc) greatly increases the likelyhood of something adverse happening. Just use proper controlled methods – like not being on your phone constantly! Also remember, if you’ve got a phone with unlimited power (thank you solar charger) – you’re probably contacting someone who doesn’t!
Collate Important Numbers
Ideally this will have been done before any emergency arises, but you should quickly write down all important numbers you may need in the next few days. This will largely be loved ones you’ve just contacted.
This is important as it’ll enable a household full of mobile-phone users to maintain one device powered up, instead of keeping several devices charged. It also gives you the ability to contact them from another device (a neighbour’s phone, or even a payphone?).
Food and Water Management
Healthy drinkable water is going to be your main concern. If you’re at home, you’ll like have sufficient food stores to last you days. If you consider a load of bread, some boxes of cereal, tins of meat, fish and soup. You’ll probably be surprised whats in your cupboards!
Water Water Everywhere…
As mentioned much higher up, running mains-water is likely to shut off after only a few hours, if it hasn’t done already. Hopefully you’ve already grabbed a few bottles of tap water while the mains water was still flowing.
Depending on the number of people at your location, it may also be worth filling a bath! Quickly rinse it off, then fill it up with cold water. A bath will hold around 200 litres of water! It’s a convenient place to store a large quantity of water, and no-ones having a bath if the water will eventually cease to flow anyway!
If you’re being proactive, we have an article about purchasing containers for survival situations [LINK], easy ways to collect rain water [LINK], as well as an article about easy water purification techniques. We can also recommend this packet of 50x water purification tablets for £3 off Amazon.
Fridge and Freezer
It’s likely that the fridge and freezer will contain a lot of calories worth of food – but will almost certainly be perishable (hence why its in the fridge or freezer).
How Long will A Fridge or Freezer Last Without Power?
The UK’s Food Standard Agency states that in a blackout a fridge or freezer will maintain a safe temperature for 4-6 and 24-48 hours respectively. Although I can’t imagine my freezer staying frozen for 2 full days! These times drastically drop everytime the doors are opened, or during periods of hot weather.
You can obviously transfer cold liquids to thermos flasks, or even place items safely outside during colder months.
Freezer Thaw
If the power hasn’t returned for 24 hours, I would keep a careful eye on your freezer. At some point the ice will thaw and a large quantity of water will start dripping onto your floor. At that point, or after 48 hours of power-loss, I would bag up and throw out the frozen(?) food. Don’t risk food poison or water damage.
Consuming Food – The Correct Order
Given the rising temperatures of fridges and freezers once their power has been lost, you’ll have to decide the order in what to eat. If you have working gas, it may be worth cooking a meals worth of food ahead of time, as the gas mains will likely stop flowing shortly too.
The order to consume food in during a blackout would be:
- Food that needs to be kept in a fridge, i.e. cheeses, pre-cooked meats etc
- Defrosted frozen food that doesn’t need cooking, i.e. frozen fruit or vegetables, breads etc
- Room-temperature perishable food, i.e. most fruit and vegetables
- Room-temperature preserved foods, i.e. canned, bottled or dried food
Emergency Food Supplies for 72 Hours
While it is a precautionary step to what to do in a blackout, you should consider purchasing enough food to survive 72 hours, to stockpile for exactly this situation. Combined with the useful (i.e. safely consumable) food in your fridge/freezer, an additional 72hours worth of food massively boosts your situation.
Thankfully we’ve already put together a shopping list of 72hours worth of food for under £10!
Staying Warm and Heating the Home
Unfortunately if the power goes out during the heights of summer, or the depths of winter, things are probably going to get a bit uncomfortable. The air-conditioner or boiler is likely to have died with the power.
Summer Months
In the summer months, strip off and use a damp flannel to stay cool. Try to find the coolest part of the house, and even sleep during the hottest period of the day. Using a damp flannel to keep yourself cool doesn’t need to be safe drinking water.
Winter Months
Shut all the doors and curtains throughout the property. Place cushions, blankets or towels in front of doors to minimise drafts.
Then try to base yourself in a single room, minimising the volume of house you’re needing to stay warm. Move supplies and everything you may need into a single room. Use blankets, extra layers of clothing and sleeping bags to stay warm but don’t use candles.
Candles are a massive fire risk, especially if you’re blocking doors off with blankets etc! For light, use battery powered collapsable lanterns, like this pair for only £12.
If you’ve got a wood burning stove or fireplace, you’re in luck during the cooler months. Just remember to check there is sufficient circulation and ventilation.
Staying Entertained and Sleeping
While this may sound stupid – this is one of the emergencies that could hit the UK that will enable you to relax! It’s time to bust out the board games and the books.
Whatever it takes to keep peoples spirits and moral high, do it. Whether that’s group games for the whole family, or quiet time where everyone just grabs a book to read. Once the blackout has been in place for over 24 hours, peoples mood will drop and worry will fill their minds. Keep everyone occupied with something or other, even if that is having fun!
And don’t forgot, if the power’s gone out, you can sleep to pass the time! 6 hours of blackout is going to pass a lot quicker than 6 hours of staying awake for no reason.
Maybe it’s time to catchup on those lost hours of sleep, or time to introduce the midday nap.
Monitor and Repeat
Now you’ve established what to do in a blackout – it’s time to keep on top of things. Without power, hours and days will repeat themselves as you maintain your household and happiness in what most be pretty dire times.
Things to Routinely Monitor and Check During a Blackout
- Utilities – are they still on / off?
- How are YOU doing?
- Is there anything useful on the radio? (News or pending weather)
- How far-away loved ones are doing (via SMS ideally)
- Neighbours – are they doing okay? Could they do with some support?
- How’s your food and water situation?
- How are your stored batteries / power-banks?
- Is the home still stable and okay? During a storm it may have been damaged, flooded etc
- How’s the freezer – defrosted and leaking everywhere?
[BONUS] Ways to Prepare for the Next Blackout
Now that you’ve read a good 2,500 words on what to do in a blackout – do you think you’re better prepared for the time the power goes down? Here’s a quick bullet list of things to do to prepare for the next blackout:
- Have a blackout plan!
- Purchase 72 hours worth of food for under a tenner
- Write down important phone numbers of family, close friends, schools, places of work etc
- Identify vulnerable loved ones and neighbours
- Have a cheap but suitable first-aid kid
- Make sure sleeping bags and warm clothing are accessible
- Get some suitable emergency gear; we’ve put together a list of gear for < £100
What to do in a Blackout – A Summary
Hopefully after reading this article you’re a lot more clued up on what to do in a blackout. Remember that during a blackout, begin by staying calm and gathering information with a battery-powered or hand-crank radio. Unplug appliances to prevent damage from power surges and use battery-powered torches instead of candles for safety. Conserve mobile phone battery by sending texts instead of making calls and check on vulnerable neighbours. Have emergency contacts written down and ready.
Manage water by using stored supplies and purifying collected rainwater. Eat perishable foods first and cook using a camping stove or barbecue. Stay warm by dressing in layers, using blankets, and insulating a single room. Ensure your first aid kit is well-stocked and have backup power for medical equipment if needed. Keep morale high with non-electronic activities like board-games and books, and stay connected with your neighbours. Keep your EDC or Multi-Tool at hand. Monitor the situation continuously, use solar chargers safely, and review your response after the blackout to improve future preparedness.
Thanks for reading this article on what to do in a blackout!
Lights-on!
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