Power Outage Tips

2/5/2018 (Permalink)

When a heavy storm hits your area, your power may go out.  Most of us have experienced it before.  It can range from a minor inconvenience that lasts less than an hour, to a multi-day event that requires safety precautions be taken.

If your refrigerator loses power, food and other perishables are safe to consume if the outage lasts 4 hours or less.  After this period, bacteria can grow and cause food to be unsafe to eat. Medications that need to be refrigerated can lose their potency if warmed too much.  Most medications are still effective up to 24 hours after a power loss.  Still check each label to verify. After that period, discard all medications unless otherwise noted.

If an outage occurs in either the winter or summer, extreme temperatures can come into play.  Both heat stroke and hypothermia can affect people if the building without power has no means of temperature regulation.  If too hot, seek out a commercial space that has a generator powering an air conditioning system.