Hurricane Prep Checklist: The Power Backup Edition

The forecast cone moved east and now it's pointed at you. You've got maybe three days.

This is the list. It's in order. The free things come first, because the free things matter most and everyone skips them to go shopping.

72 hours out

Charge absolutely everything. Power station to 100 percent. Phones, laptops, tablets, power banks, tool batteries, the kids' devices. Anything that holds a charge.

This is the single most important line on this page. A power station sitting at 40 percent when the grid drops is most of a wasted purchase.

Fill your car's gas tank. Not for evacuating — for charging. A 12V adapter turns your car into a slow generator, and gas stations can't pump without power.

Fill the freezer with water. Jugs, bottles, zip bags. Mass holds cold, air doesn't. This is free and it roughly doubles how long a half-empty freezer stays safe. verify

Get cash. Card readers need power and internet. So do ATMs.

48 hours out

Turn the fridge and freezer colder. You're banking cold into the food itself. It buys you hours later for nothing now.

Test the power station under real load. Plug the fridge into it for ten minutes.

Do this. Genuinely. Finding out your unit trips on the compressor surge is something you want to learn on a Tuesday afternoon, not at midnight in the wind.

Fill the bathtub. If you're on a well, no power means no water at all. Bathtub water is for flushing, not drinking.

Refill prescriptions. Pharmacies close and their systems need power.

24 hours out

Charge everything again. Things drift down. Top them up.

Bring the solar panels inside. They're not useful in the storm and they're expensive kites.

Cook what will spoil. Eat down the fridge. Anything cooked keeps a bit longer than anything raw.

Locate the flashlights. All of them. Not the phone — you'll want the phone battery.

Charge a couple of power banks. Small, cheap, and they mean the power station doesn't get opened for a phone.

When the power goes

Don't open the fridge. Four hours if you leave it shut. Much less if you keep checking. verify

Run the fridge in cycles, not continuously. An hour on, three hours off. Food's fine and the battery lasts much longer.

Turn the CPAP humidifier off if anyone uses one. Roughly halves the draw for the same night's sleep.

Text, don't call. Texts get through congested networks when calls don't, and they use less battery.

The heat problem nobody solves

Here's the honest bit, because most hurricane content dodges it.

You are not running air conditioning off a portable battery. Not for a meaningful length of time, not at any sensible price.

A small window unit drains a 2,000Wh battery in a few hours, and that's the small one. Central air isn't even a conversation.

What actually works in the heat is a box fan. Around 75 watts, runs for many hours on a modest battery, and moving air makes a genuine difference to how a room feels. verify

Buy the fan. Skip the fantasy about the AC.

What to buy if you're buying this week

A 1,000 to 2,000Wh LiFePO4 unit with at least 1,800W output. Fridge, fans, internet, phones, CPAP. That's the outage solved for most households.

A 200W-class solar panel, if outages in your area run past two days. Below that length, panels are optional.

A 12V car charging adapter. Cheap, and the most reliable recharging method there is, because your car is already outside with fuel in it.

Don't buy a unit under 500Wh as your storm plan. It won't protect food. It's a fine thing to own — it isn't a hurricane plan.

Don't buy a gas generator in a panic without also buying a carbon monoxide alarm. People die from generator exhaust after every major storm, in garages and near windows, and they die in their sleep.

After the storm

Solar panels out as soon as it's safe. Even overcast puts something back.

Assume three days minimum. Crews restore the biggest population centers first. Rural and coastal lines wait.

Check on neighbors, especially anyone with medical equipment. A power station with capacity left is a genuinely useful thing to be able to offer someone.