Residents Urged To Be Prepared For Power Outages

Friday’s outage was the longest Pam Deschuymere has had in quiet a while.

And her main concern was her food.

“Frustrated just because my refrigerator. I don’t know what’s going bad and it all might be bad by the end of the day,” said Deschuymere, she lost power for nearly 13 hours.

It’s just one of many things that can catch you buy surprise in a power outage.

And Southern California Edison has tips on what you can do to prepare.

They say the first thing to do is make sure a flashlight and batteries are in an easy to find place.

“We have candles ready. We always have a flashlight nearby and we have like water and other than that I wouldn’t know what we’d need to prepare for that,” said Deschuymere.

Try an emergency kit, similar to what you’d find in an earthquake kit. If an outage happens because of an earthquake don’t use candles because aftershocks can make them a fire hazard.

Then there’s your food. If you know the outage is going to be long, make sure to move your perishables from the refrigerator and freezer to a cooler with ice or ice packs.

It also helps to have a plan; like going to a movie, a family or friends house or a cooling center. Find a place where you can safely wait for power to be restored.

Normally in the summer it would be scorching hot. That means closing your windows, doors and blinds when the air conditioner goes out. Ed Ayoub said the weather cooperated for the most recent outage.

“I happened to happen on a cool day so it’s really not a problem. The house is still cool inside,” said Ayoub.