Tips For When The Power Goes Out

Duke Energy has a few tips for you if your power goes out.

First always report the outages to your power company. Never touch or go near power lines that have fallen down or anything touching the down lines.

You should have an emergency or outage kit prepared in advance of a power outage. Place the kit someplace that is easily accessible and can be found in the dark.

The kit should contain: a flashlight with extra batteries, a battery-powered radio with extra batteries, canned or other foods that require no cooking, a manual can opener, First Aid kit, extra fuses, a battery-powered or wind up clock.

You should also consider any special items that you may need like prescription medication, baby food and diapers, additional warm clothing and a safe heat source to place in your kit.

Make sure your cell phone is fully charged.

Food safety is a big concern for people who have been without power a long period of time. Most refrigerators should keep food safely cold for about four hours if it is not opened. A full freezer should hold the temperature for about 48 hours and a half full freezer for about 24 hours if the door is not opened.

To help protect your food, keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to help maintain the cold temperature until power has been restored.

A generator is a nice backup power source if an outage lasts a considerable length of time. Emergency generators, either stationary or portable, should always be installed by a licensed electrician.

Every generator is a little different so always follow the manufacturer's instructions to ensure proper operation of your generator.

A few safety tips to keep in mind when using a generator: never operate a generator inside of a building or garage, always run your generator outside to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.

Store gasoline only in approved fuel containers. Never refill your generator while it is running.

Have a fully charged fire extinguisher rated for electrical and gas fires ready at all times.

When using an emergency generator, plug appliances like your refrigerator directly into the generator.

For more power outage tips visit Duke Energy's web site. If you have an outage to report call 1-800-POWERON or 1-800-769-3766.