Staying Plugged In When The Power's Out

With Hurricane Sandy raging across the east coast right now, we are all being reminded of so many things. Like making an emergency kit, knowing where flashlights and candles are, stocking up on food & supplies etc. But as I was reading tweets and Facebook posts yesterday, I saw a lot of people talking about how they were preparing for the oncoming storm by making they were “all charged up,” as in, phones, tablets, laptops.

Good point... I thought (as I tried to remember where all of my chargers were). We take the battery life of our tech devices for granted, but when there’s the possibility of a power outage, we need them more than ever!

In a power outage, your cell phone or mobile device may be your only contact with finding out what’s happening in the rest of the stormy world. And we all hate that feeling when we pick up our phones and see a little number like “25%” on the battery life indicator.

Here are a few things to keep in mind in storm season, so that you’ve got some connection with the world during a power outage.

• Plug your mobile devices in to charge every night. If your kids have phones, encourage them to get into this habit as well. Nine times out of ten, just when you need an extra phone (i.e., your teen’s) the battery’s almost dead.
• Keep your cell phone plugged in next to your bed. There’s nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night, realizing the power’s out and then hunting for that (now seemingly invisible) phone.
• Consider getting an external battery pack to use (make sure you keep it charged too!)
• Make sure all of your apps are closed and not running in the background
• Cordless phones are useless in a power outage. Consider having one “old fashioned” plug in type of phone in the house.
• If you have a pre-paid cell phone account—make sure your account is topped up & maybe add a little extra
• Make sure your kids’ school has your cell phone number as well as your home number
• A power outage is not the time for kids to be playing Angry Birds or playing tunes. Preserve your device’s energy and play some board games instead. Monopoly by candlelight is actually pretty fun.
• Finally, and this is something I started doing years ago and am so glad I did, utilize call-forwarding on your home phone line and forward the calls to your cell phone. If there is a terrible storm with power & phone line outages and you have worried family that are trying to reach you—their frantic call will go straight to your cell and everyone’s mind will be put at ease.

If you’ve still got power on your devices, check out the Twitter feed for the Weather Channel’s Hurricane Central for the lates updates & photos from Hurricane Sandy

For more information about emergency preparedness, check out the Canadian Red Cross page here. They have excellent info and links—things that make you go...RIGHT! I have to do that!

Stay safe, stay warm, send me a tweet to let me know how you did in the storm.

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