Use the room
Close blinds against sun, block safe drafts, layer clothing and bedding, move activity to the coolest or warmest useful space, and avoid heating or cooling empty rooms.
Keep life going · Safe temperature
Keep People Safely Warm or Cool.
Temperature trouble often builds quietly. A room gets warmer, a battery gets lower, or a cold night lasts longer than expected. Decide what you will measure, what you can do safely, and when you will leave.
Start with one room and one threshold.
Choose the room that is easiest to keep safely warm or cool. Note shade, drafts, windows, safe ventilation, sleeping space, and who is most affected by heat or cold.
Write down the indoor condition or equipment limit that means your household moves somewhere safer. A plan without a leaving point can become a very patient mistake.
Reduce the load before adding equipment.
Protect medical continuity
Ask clinicians and equipment providers about heat-sensitive medicines, refrigerated products, powered devices, fluid restrictions, backup power, and the point when another location is necessary.
Use combustion safely
Never heat a home with a gas oven, grill, or camp stove. CDC says generators belong outdoors, more than 20 feet from windows, doors, and vents, with a working battery-backed carbon-monoxide detector inside.
Know the destination
Identify cooling or warming centers, accessible transport, animal arrangements, and a friend or public place that can safely receive you.
Plan around bodies, buildings, and power.
Renters
Learn who controls central heating, cooling, ventilation, and generator connections. Report failures early and keep the property contact available on paper.
Heat and smoke together
Closing windows may reduce smoke while increasing heat. Monitor both; use filtered, cooled public space when the room cannot remain safely breathable and cool.
Cold and wet conditions
Dry layers matter. Hypothermia can occur above freezing when someone is wet or chilled, and confusion can make self-assessment unreliable.
Longer interruptions
Blankets, fans, batteries, and shade help for a while. Sustained safe temperature may require a powered public facility, transport, fuel delivery, repair, or relocation.
Heat stroke and hypothermia are medical emergencies. Follow current health guidance and seek emergency help for severe symptoms. Do not wait for a household plan to solve a medical crisis.
Check the room, not the stereotype.
Ask whether someone’s indoor temperature, power, or medication storage is still safe. Do not assume age or disability tells you the answer.
CDC’s power-outage guidance covers heat, cold, food, medicine, and carbon monoxide. Current local health and emergency instructions decide when public facilities open. CDC power-outage safety 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 power-outage safety guidance. Recheck official instructions before publication and during any interruption.