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.

Careful, op probably wants to steal it

Looting the vending warehouse store is certainly a choice.
I’d feel like a muppet if the power came back on while I was scarpering off with my 72 pack box of monster munch and crate of cherry cola.

I think I’ll just sit it out at home thanks. I’ll snuggle up to my dogs and wait for the Russians to come for me.

I'm not a prepper, not about to rush out panic-buying anything.

We get power cuts here (rural Ireland) in the winter on a regular basis. I think we lost power for a day or so a while back. We have a wood-burning stove if we need to cook - it doesn't take long to boil a pan of water once it's going, or heat a can of something. I have cast iron casseroles I could make soda bread in (and always have the ingredients to hand). We have candles and torches, power banks and batteries. Plenty of tinned and dry foods. Lots of wood. The sea's within walking distance, we have fishing rods, and I know where to collect winkles and mussels.

If the power was out for more than a couple of days, I think we'd probably get together with our close neighbours (there's a spring on their land for fresh water) and pool resources. We have a great community here. I think we'd do OK.

Haha, me too. Op your post sounds like a life threatening apocalypse.

Hopefully it's not parked near OP/chain mail fence .......😁

Do schools have policy regarding emergency, etc? Our school had a small fire last year and I realised they had no bloody idea what to do, nevermind something more serious. I always think how they would manage if phones, electricity off?

Read a good book and eat my choclate stash.

To stop people knowing you have provisions you want to protect.

Alternatively, join a community group where resources are shared.

I’d complain that it’s dark and I can’t find the matches to light the candles.
Then I’d complain that Corrie is about to start and I’m going to miss it ( I never watch it on itv, always on ITV iplayer catch up thing)

Then I’d moan that the candles are all scented and I’ve got a headache

in between my complaint in teen DD will be moody due to no internet.

And a barricaded, blacked out house just screams "nothing to see here"?

I just love your intensely inflated sense of importance that you think everyone will come after you for your treasure of baked beans and matches, merely because of a lack of electricity!

Also, even if your son in law and daughter drive EVs, they’re not plugged into the mains AS YOU DRIVE THEM ffs! 🤦🏼‍♀️ 😆😆😆 I have an EV, they have batteries with 300+ mile range!! I promise, in a power cut they will still work, honest!

Did you really think they were driving around attached to a realllllllllly long mains power cable?!?

This post is pure scaremongering nonsense and irresponsible to boot.

I am pretty disorganised so I probably wouldn't do anything much except light some candles and look for my camping lantern. Then read a book, or maybe walk to my friend's house because I'd be bored after a while, and take some wine with me!

DD’s primary school’s wind turbine got struck by lightning last year (yes, really) causing the power transformer box thingy in the Year 5 cloakroom to explode, knocking all the power out (whilst DD was doing forest school less than 20ft from said turbine 😱). The teachers ran around screaming, followed by all the kids and the receptionist sent a text to all parents saying simply “The children are all being taken to the church for safety. Please do not panic” Just that. Zero context.
That was a fun (& very wet) afternoon. Finally got my kid back around 1630 due to nobody knowing what kid was where…

I blame Ed Miliband.

Where I live, there are a number of 19th century forts. I'd pack up my dog, my turtle, a spare pair of knickers, my wind up torch. I'd fashion a few flame throwers using FryLite spray and a box of matches.

Oh. Hang on. We're not talking zombie apocalypse then?? 😆

I actually though this was a serious preppers page.
My mistake.

Thanks OP. I have to run a team building exercise tomorrow. This is the challenge I am now going to set them. I will report back.

Don’t worry @BorgQueen you’ll be having the last laugh as we all get eaten by rabid dogs while eating tree bark.

I'd want to make sure it was a power cut first of all so I'd check the trip-switches.

I'd look out of the window for any signs the neighbourhood was out, or whether it was just us.

I did buy a load of battery-powered lamps a few years ago when power cuts were being threatened. If it was light when the power went off, I'd make sure I had the lamps handy and ready to go if the power wasn't back by nightfall.

I'd also dig out the power banks I own, so I could still use my mobile phone, and I'd switch it to silent and power-save mode to preserve what charge it had.

I'd dig out some handheld battery powered games consoles I have, for entertainment when it got too dark to read, and also my battery powered radio, assuming there would still be broadcasting.

I'd start thinking about what I could eat using only the hob to cook (if we still had gas) or, if no hob, what I could have to eat cold.

Oooh yes pls do. I’ll be interested to hear their answers. I don’t get out much these days.

Proper preppers aren't rushing out the to shops and robbing bikes on day 1 😂

Id wonder how the bus had driven past with its lights on 🙊

@BorgQueen you left off Go to the Winchester and wait until all blows over.

I feel a bit sorry for your family OP if you’re always this dramatic and self interested.

”does she drive a tram” 😂