Here are a few tips based on lot of power failure experiences in the Pacific Northwest.
First off, become self reliant and smart. If the disaster is going to be big enough—evacuate. There is no need to stick around and become a refugee after Mt. Rainier blows its top. That type of disaster will have plenty of warning signs. For those disasters that pop up unexpectedly. Read on.
Make Your Own Power I do not have enough sunlight for solar power. We use a generator. If you get a generator, make sure it is diesel or propane powered. Gasoline does not store very well and it is not safe.
Diesel Diesel has a very long shelf life, it is stable, and safe to store. In a generator diesel runs very efficiently. It is hard to stall a diesel generator. If you have a diesel vehicle, you can rotate your fuel.
Make a Few Trades The National Guard and the military use diesel. A case of beer can be bartered for more fuel from relief agencies during a disaster. People have their priorities. A tired National Guardsman might want a few beers after a long stressful day dealing with a full blown disaster.
Propane Propane has the shelf life of gravel. If you can find enough tanks or have a large tank, this may be a good selection for you. It is not as efficient as diesel, but you can store it for a very long time.
Gasoline Gasoline goes bad quickly. It is dangerous to store. Just looking at it will make it explode. You are not storing it in your garage are you? If so, the fire department may let your house burn down before they attempt to put out a fire. The same is true for propane or diesel. Store the fuel outside in a covered container.
Supply Do you have enough fuel? I keep my tanks topped off. Additionally I top off my tanks every week on my cars. I work from home, so my cars have a full tank at all times.
Preparations Does your generator have a battery? Keep it maintained and charged. Will the generator start? Do you test it regularly? Do you have a bypass panel for your house? If not, I do not want to know how you power your home.
Can your wife or kids power your home while you are gone? Create a checklist for starting and stopping the generator. Use it even if you know how, it is amazing how many mistakes you can make under pressure. Checklists are very important.
Do you have a power list for appliances. Do you know the wattage loads of your appliances? Can you effectively balance the load across the two 120 volt legs coming from your 240 volt power supply in your home? You need to balance the power as much as possible. How much can you turn on before you overload the generator? Do you have LED bulbs or CFL bulbs, They use a lot less power. Know this ahead of time.
Do you have a working Carbon Monoxide alarm in case exhaust is blowing back into your home via attic vents? No, you should not be running the generator in your garage (I cannot believe that happens). It is possible that wind can blow exhaust into your home. Do you know the symptoms of exposure?
Battery Power A large 12 volt Deep Discharge Battery is a must. Get a good charger and a battery box. Keep it charged at all times. Maintain it. Have it ready before the storm. I use it at night when I shut down my generator. It is used to power my transceiver when 120 volts is not available. Are the power cables fuse protected (of course, we are all electronically inclined).
Rechargeable Batteries Toss your 1 hour charger in the trash. 15 minute chargers will ruin batteries even faster. Get a smart charger such as a Powerex Maha Energy MH C9000. I cooked enough batteries to realize that a worthwhile investment is needed. The smart charger will charge the batteries without cooking them. This smart charger will analyze your batteries. You can determine the actual capacity of your batteries and label them. This is good for capacity matching when you place the batteries into service. This also allows you to retire batteries that are below 75% of their rated capacity. Mismatched batteries and batteries below 75% capacity are a big problem. Imagine six batteries in your radio. Five of them are have an actual capacity of 2000 mAh and the other one is only providing 1000 mAh. That situation will cause your radio to die very quickly. It will also ruin the more batteries.
Lighting Get rid of the incandescent bulbs in your home. Cree Bulbs are my favorite. They are made in the USA.That one elimination will allow you to scale down power requirements for a generator drastically. LED lights are great for night time when you shutdown the generator. If an outage lasts a long time, small kerosene lamps (Dietz style) are relatively safe and efficient. LED lanterns will also last a very long time. If your power outage is weeks long, alternative sources of light are needed.
Heat What is your alternative heat source? Most of us have gas heat and if we use our generator, we can turn the fan in the furnace and keep warm. If the gas is turned off, what is your alternative source of heat? Kerosene works well. It stores well like diesel. Also there are camping stoves (Butterfly 2412) that will run on the same fuel. You can also light your place with a few small kerosene lamps. The kerosene lamps provide some warmth. A kerosene heater can serve a great source of inexpensive heat. The Heat Mate HMN-110 has a taller Catalytic tower. This results in a very clean burn.
See my note about a Carbon Monoxide alarm. Kerosene uses oxygen, it does not produce much Carbon Monoxide, but you should provide some ventilation.
Cooking See above for a kerosene stove. We have several sources of fuel at our place. Electrical (Microwave oven) when the generator is running, Kerosene, propane (camping stove outdoors) and butane (cooking indoors). We also have a few beer can alcohol stoves that we loan to neighbors. Many sources of heat need to be available for cooking food. You might want to consider a pressure cooker. They require less fuel to cook a meal. My generator is not wired up to my stove. That is a waste in my opinion. There are several other methods for cooking your food or boiling water. My Butterfly 2412 stove uses so little kerosene (or diesel if I am desperate) that I could cook for months.
Again, see my note about a Carbon Monoxide alarm. Kerosene uses oxygen, it does not produce much Carbon Monoxide, but you should provide some ventilation.
Food and water Store lots of food that can be eaten at room temperature. Rotate it often if you can. There are lots of resources out there for this. Hopefully you have enough water. Your water heater holds an enormous amount of water. If you live in the Northwest, rain can be collected and boiled. Snow works well too. Once, I stopped by my local grocery store after a major ice storm to pick up a few items. It was sobering to see how few items remained on the shelves. It looked like a store in East Germany during the late 1980s. Keep a supply of food and water on hand.
Communications Yes, last on the list. Take care of yourselves first and help others. Communications is subordinate to basic survival. It is evident that we can communicate (that is why we are using Winlink). I have a scanner that monitors important public safety frequencies. I also have a shortwave receiver and a hand crank radio for news. We help our neighbors when we can. I have four GMRS/FRS radios in addition to my ham gear. I do hold a GMRS license. It seems like I am the only one in my area legally operating on GMRS frequencies. I hand these radios out to my neighbors. I tune and lock them to a license free FRS channel (not the shared gmrs/frs frequencies). This preserves power (0.5 watt limitation) and it allows them to operate without a license. They can use the radios to communicate as needed. If a message needs to be relayed, they can stop by for a cup of coffee and write an email or two from my home. If I can, I use my Winlink station on VHF first. It is much faster than HF. As a last resort, I will use HF. If there is cell coverage, that is used first. Cell towers here go silent after 24 hour after an outage. Â I have walked to the ridge overlooking a valley to gain coverage in the past. I only do this if I can maintain communications with my family over my 2m/70 cm handheld radio. My thoughts on emergency communication are pretty cynical. The government will use their communications gear for themselves. They will maintain civil order as required. We can use our gear to help ourselves and others not covered by our government. Personally, I am not going to hold my breath and wait for them to help. They are going to be preoccupied with more than enough issues. It is better to be able to help ourselves and others.