What would you do in the first hours of a nationwide power cut? A handy tips thread.

[BorgQueen]

1. Before ANYTHING else : Fill 3 x 120l lidded storage boxes with water. Plus every bottle, pan and vase.
2. Go and collect my Grandson from school if he was there. I could walk it in 30 mins if need be, DD would likely have to abandon her car and walk home, taking 3 hours+ . Her partner works 30 miles away in Manchester so god knows what he’d do, steal a bike if he had any sense and cycle home using the many canal paths.
3. Walk into my village and buy cat litter, bin bags, a garden incinerator, steel buckets, batteries, lighters and whatever else looked useful plus calorie dense food and whatever medical supplies I could find while they would still take cash.
4. Go to the garden centre down the road and buy a gas bbq/ gas and lots of solar lights, along with one of those camping trollies with cash before everyone realised what was coming.
5. Go to the caravan/camping sales place by the garden centre and buy a camping shower, lots of gas bottles and look to see which caravan would be easiest to steal if it came to having to leave/hide, one that could be wheeled out by cutting the chain link fence and taken to a well hidden place. Thankfully DH has a tow bar on his van.
6. Make sure we could black out all the windows at night to stop light escaping.
7. Get DH to make large wooden barriers with decking joists to prevent the front and back doors being battered in. His power tool batteries are always fully charged.
8. Park his van across the big front window and my car so it blocked access to the garage.
9. Scope out a local vending supplies warehouse, unless you knew what and where it was, people wouldn’t even think about it, they’d be too busy robbing cash converters.

i already have candles, matches, torches, batteries, phone charger blocks from Covid times (when people said we might have a nationwide powercut 😂😂).

my brother in law has a panic storage room with emergency stock of food, and living supplies. He’s a weirdo because he believes something is going to happen. We had this conversation in 2022 and nothing has happened yet😂😂.

What’s got me thinking is if we do have a power outage then we won’t be able to leave our apartment block as the entrance door has a door release button which functions with leccy (electricity). Are they called electromagnetic locks?

Lol me too.
I never hear any of this doom-mongering except on MN.

This smacks of a Quiet Place and other movies of that ilk eg Leave the World Behind .

This

They should cut out in a power cut. I’ve got a fob gate and that’s exactly what happened.

🦇💩

We have a caravan so that's a start

I’d assume it wouid be over within 20 minutes and wouid potter in the garden or take the dog for a walk

I think you're not a very nice person, OP. If everyone behaves like you, then yes, the country would be a total mess in 72 hours. If people's first instinct is to act like you and start stealing from each other to get as much for themselves, then violence would skyrocket.

Or we could behave like civilised people and just stay at home playing cards.

Well as someone who lives in a part of the country which has multi day power cuts (longest to date 8 days) where full powerlines were badly damaged...this isn't what we do.

The community helps each other as it took many many days for any central scottish govt help to be organised.

We checked on vulnerable neighbours those with gas cooking options made hot soup and halls were opened up where they had generators.

Might want to rethink your attitude and I'm glad the communities of North Scotland don't follow it TBH!

In the first few hours of a national power cut I doubt I would notice it was national at first. I don't think nationwide looting would begin instantly. I'd probably carry on as in a normal power cut. My house and all my neighbours have solar panels so we woild still have a bit of electric. I have a camping stove / gas / gas bbq already. We've got water butt's/ hot tub and a river at the bottom of the garden along with water purification tablets so probably won't die of the water goes off After 24 hrs of power cut I'd start to think about what I could cook and eat from the freezer so as not to waste it but hopefully could keep the garage fridge or the camping fridge running off the solar panels. I'd still go to work and teach using textbooks until we run out of fuel. Assuming my kids could still go to school.

Your plan to rush out and buy stages and foot etc is madness.

Do you mean as part of some sort of war where we are out for days? Otherwise we would just carry on as normal with torches and candles and eat cereal for tea and wait for it to come back on. We are in north of Scotland so power cuts aren’t uncommon. It was off for over a week just up the road from us a few years ago!

By the time you’ve done everything on your list you’re £500 down and the power has gone back on. And you’ve pissed off your entire neighbourhood.

And I don’t get the grandson thing. If he’s still at school then a power cut would only have just happened so why would you be panic collecting him after like 20 mins? Why would your daughter have to abandon her car? Does she drive a tram?

I have so many questions.

After the power cut?? 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Why abandon the car in a nationwide power cut?

How are you planning to carry cat litter, a garden incinerator and steel buckets back from the shop?

So many questions. If I saw someone walking from the shops juggling bins, buckets, cat litter etc, I’m sure I’d realise something was up 😂.

I remember a 3-day power cut after the big storm of 1987 - it was cold! We had a coal fire in the sitting room, a camping gaz to cook potatoes and vegetables to have with cold meat, and to boil water for hot water bottles and for washing. We wore so many layers to keep warm, but we survived. Do you know what was most comforting? The grandfather clock and other wind-up clocks which kept ticking and chiming - and it was lovely sitting and dreaming in front of the coal fire until late at night before venturing to bed!

Yep she’s messed up there. She needs to do step 4 first so she can get the camping trolley.

You aren’t explaining why DD has to abandon her car? It makes no sense.

I am not sure how you expect to go shopping if there is a power cut. The shops will be shut.

Also.. don't panic.

Enjoy the TV being off in my house for five fucking minutes.

She deffo bought a trolly worth of toilet roll during lockdown didn't she?!

Odd that people think this doesn’t happen already here in the UK.

I said the other day on another thread that we went days without electricity and water after Storn Goretti. We I’ve rurally and power cuts aren’t uncommon. We are expecting bigger storms this winter. Places don’t stay open for people to buy alcohol etc in power cuts as their tills and fridges and freezers don’t work (our local shop lost so much), and if there is storm damage then roads are closed due to fallen trees and power lines are down. It took ages for our road to be reopened, one side blocked with huge trees and the other flooded. If you want to be prepared, then get prepared but don’t wait.

Modern life is not set up to withstand these sorts of things, stupidly.

I mean if there's a nationwide power outage it would take several days to maybe 10 to get everything back up and running. I don't know about transformers though. I feel like if you want all that stuff you probably need to own most of it before it happens Especially if you reckon people are going to abandon their vehicles immediately.

Make sure we could black out all the windows at night to stop light escaping.

This is my favourite bit. Even light is an unwilling guest in your hourse.

Why not get some of the stuff now, save you a bit of bother on the day.

You've not answered any of the questions op. I think you're here on a wind up 🙄