How to prepare for a power outage

The idea of being left completely without power — and, in effect, having your day-to-day existence reverting back hundreds of years in an instant — sounds like something out of a disaster movie.
And yet, it was reality for tens of millions of people in Spain and Portugal yesterday and today when a huge outage brought both of the Iberian peninsula to a near-standstill, grounding planes, halting public transport, and forcing hospitals to suspend routine operations.
Spain's interior ministry declared a national emergency, deploying 30,000 police across the country to keep order, as governments from the two countries convened emergency cabinet meetings.
REN, Portugal's national grid operator, blamed the weather and a 'rare atmospheric phenomenon'. This, it said, had been caused by extreme temperature variations in recent days which, in turn, caused 'anomalous oscillations' in very high voltage lines in the Spanish grid, a process engineers described as 'induced atmospheric vibration'.
Every home in Europe should have a three-day crisis survival kit, including bottled water, canned food, a torch and supplies of toilet paper, the European Union said last month.
So what can you do, if anything, to be prepared for a sudden power outage — caused either by freak weather phenomena, a hacking attack by a hostile power, or simply a technology failure?
• What caused the power outage in Spain and Portugal?
We asked three British disaster professors how they have prepared in their own homes. Professor Lucy Easthope, Britain's leading disaster expert, is a prolific lecturer, author and government adviser on emergency planning and disaster recovery. Dr Sarita Robinson, nicknamed Dr Survival, lectures on the psychology of survival at the University of Central Lancashire. Plus, Professor Ilan Kelman is professor of disasters and health at University College London.
Easthope (@LucyGoBag on X) says your go bag should contain what you would take 'if somebody said to you, 'We need to get you out now, you've got 15 minutes to pack.'' Her bag mirrors a 'weekend mini break bag, but with extra things in'. It has a phone charger, a battery pack, underwear, a wash bag, a spare pair of glasses, headache pills and a bottle of water. Kelman's advice is to keep at hand a money belt with cash and a passport, as bank cards may not work in a crisis.
Robinson's bag is in her car, with an extra set of clothes, a foil survival blanket, a small torch and food for 24 hours. 'It's basically thinking, if I break down on some remote Scottish hillside and my phone is out of charge, would I have enough to get me through the night?' She adds: 'Parents of young children have a go bag. It's just called a nappy bag. Don't overthink it.'
Because Kelman lives in a flat without a garden, he decided not to have a generator, which comes with a risk of fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. Nor does he have a power bank, which will eventually run out. In a long power cut 'I'm assuming that I won't have my phone or my laptop'.
To charge your phone up to four times, the consumer website Which? recommends the INIU Power Bank 22.5W Fast Charging 20,000mAh (£24.74, amazon.co.uk). Robinson has a 'tiny generator, the sort of thing you take camping'. Which? suggests the battery-powered Anker portable power station, which costs £189 from Amazon and can be charged with a solar charger. The manufacturer claims it can power a mini fridge for five hours.
Petrol generators start from £200 and diesel-powered ones from £400, Which? says. Easthope keeps hers in a store in the garden. 'It has to be well ventilated,' she says. 'It's terribly, terribly embarrassing to admit we run monthly generator drills in House Easthope.'
• Spain-Portugal power outage live: what you need to know
If you fit solar panels and a home battery, ensure that the battery will still work in a power cut. Not all do. A whole house back-up power system like EcoFlow can take your property (or camper van) off grid, but they start from £4,190.
The mobile phone network may fail in a blackout; so will landlines, if they have been switched to phone calls over broadband, as has happened in much of the UK. A wind-up radio, ideally with solar power as well, such as the Duronic Apex (£19.99, Amazon), is your best friend for emergency updates, Easthope says.
Robinson has several bottles that can purify any water (from £16.99, watertogo.eu). 'It's useful on holidays too, for cutting plastic waste when you can't trust the water.' Kelman and Easthope both keep large bottles of water at home. If the power cuts out, water supply often stops too as pumps cease. 'Then immediately stop flushing your loos,' Easthope says. You can flush with a bucket of non-drinking water instead.
Experts recommend having food for at least 72 hours. Include cereals, nuts and dried fruit, meals that do not need cooking and treats. When the pandemic loomed, Robinson was ready with the essentials but her husband noticed the 'nice things' were missing. 'He went to the shop for crisps and chocolate. Else we would have been totally miserable.' Stock food that you would eat, she adds — their tins of Fray Bentos pies never got eaten in lockdown.
A small gas camping stove with spare canisters and matches is a useful back-up cooker, Robinson says. Which? recommends the Coleman FyreStorm PCS (£79.99, Amazon). A Kelly Kettle can boil water in three minutes using only twigs and pine cones as fuel (its base camp kit costs £99.95, kellykettle.com), while a Biolite CampStove 2 does the same while also converting the heat into electricity to charge your phone (£138.99, knivesandtools.co.uk). 'A common question is: can you use a camping stove indoors? You can, but ensure there's a good amount of ventilation,' Which? advises. Or use your gas barbecue outside.
'The world feels more terrifying when it's dark,' says Easthope, who has solar lamps, rechargeable lamps and hurricane lanterns. Disaster experts 'are not thrilled with candles' because of the fire risk, she says. According to Which?, the Nebo Big Larry 2 torch (£14.99, screwfix.com) and the Black Diamond head torch (£16.96, alpinetrek.co.uk) both last over eight hours. Remember spare batteries or buy a wind-up torch.
Robinson has a life axe, also called an escape hammer, in her car to cut seatbelts and break the window if she becomes trapped in an accident. None of the professors have weapons. 'Looting and rioting are what we call a disaster myth. We see very low levels of that in real disasters,' Easthope says. 'You see high levels of hunkering down rather than rapid societal breakdown.'
Prepare a month's extra supply of prescription medication and a first-aid kit. More importantly, do a first-aid course. 'More and more we're seeing a longer delay with help coming. That's a worthwhile investment. It's a lovely quirky Christmas present for a teenager,' says Easthope, who has put both her children through first-aid courses. Her 12-year-old has also done a survival course and her nine-year-old is training to be a swimming lifeguard.
'Know thy neighbour,' Kelman says. Survival is 'all about knowing each other's needs and supporting each other.' One of the 'most important things', Easthope says, is to talk through your disaster plan as a household. What would you do in a flood or a house fire? How will you get back together if you are separated?
As a start, the UK government has a campaign with advice on how to prepare for an emergency. The US government has a good website on preparing your children (ready.gov/kids).
This article was updated from a version first published on December 15, 2023
Are you prepared for an unexpected disaster, or would you do so? What would you stock up on? Tell us below
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