Light the task
Prioritize exits, stairs, medication, sanitation, cooking, caregiving, and repairs. Headlamps keep hands free; lanterns can light a room without open flame.
Keep life going · Light and information
Keep One Light and One Trusted Source Working.
Darkness makes ordinary work harder. Rumors do something similar. A useful setup gives you safe light, current official information, and enough power to check again later.
Begin with the path you walk at night.
Put a flashlight or headlamp beside each sleeping area and the main exit. Choose controls that can be used with the hands, vision, and mobility available in the household.
Identify one local alert source, one weather source, one utility source, and a paper way to find them. Verified information should not depend on remembering which account had the blue logo.
Use power where it changes a decision.
Choose information sources
Enroll in local alerts and save official emergency-management, weather, utility, road, transit, school, and building contacts. Record the jurisdiction each one covers.
Build charging layers
Use wall charging first, then tested power banks, vehicle adapters, solar or other sources that fit the household. Reserve power for essential communication and devices.
Keep a radio option
A battery or hand-crank NOAA Weather Radio can provide warnings when internet or cellular service is unavailable. Learn the controls before the room is dark.
Make information perceivable and usable.
Access needs
Plan vibration, visual alerts, captions, volume, screen readers, large print, language, relay, and backup batteries for hearing or communication devices.
Fire and carbon monoxide
Keep smoke and CO alarms working with battery backup. Do not trade safe lighting for candles around children, animals, oxygen, or unstable surfaces.
Shared buildings
Know how management communicates when elevators, doors, alarms, water, or power fail—and what happens if the app cannot be reached.
Longer interruptions
Set check-in times instead of refreshing continuously. Rotate devices, preserve batteries, and use public notice points or trusted messengers when networks stay down.
Do not use a household post, group chat, or map as an official alert. Time-stamp information, name the issuing authority, and correct old reports visibly.
One person can monitor; everyone can keep living.
Agree who checks which official source and when the group will update. This reduces duplicate battery use and the strange human urge to refresh bad news every twelve seconds.
CDC’s power-source guidance covers lighting, chargers, batteries, medical equipment, alarms, radios, and safe generator planning. CDC backup power guidance.
One adjacent move
Household workbook
Map the people, systems, places, and arrangements this capability depends on.
Current public help
Find Official Help for current local authorities, alerts, utilities, health guidance, roads, weather, or shelters.
Reviewed July 25, 2026 against CDC backup power guidance. Recheck official instructions before publication and during any interruption.