Most Washington outages are windstorms. The power goes out, and phones and internet keep working for a while, sometimes for hours and sometimes for days. What you do in the first half hour decides how long your phone lasts and whether your family knows you are all right. This guide is about habits, not gear. You can do most of it with what you already own.
Minutes 0 to 5: safety first
- Check on everyone in the house. Use flashlights or headlamps, not candles.
- Call 911 only for emergencies. That means fire, injury, or a downed line that is sparking or blocking a road. In Washington you can text 911 if you cannot call safely, but WA EMD’s advice is “call if you can, text if you can’t.”
- Stay well away from downed power lines. Report them to your utility, or to 911 if someone is in danger.
- Report the outage to your utility, not to 911. Most utilities have an outage map and a report form. Bookmark yours now, while you have power.
- If someone relies on powered medical equipment, switch to your backup plan now. Ready.gov and the Washington Department of Health both say to plan for this ahead of time. The Department of Health suggests registering life-sustaining equipment with your utility. For medical questions, ask your care provider.
Minutes 5 to 15: save your phone battery
Your phone is your main link to alerts, family and 911. Treat its battery as a supply that has to last.
- Turn on low-power mode (iPhone) or battery saver (Android).
- Dim the screen and close video, games and navigation.
- Plug into a battery bank now, not when the phone hits 10%. Charge the phones you will need most first.
- Turn off Wi-Fi if your router is dark. Searching for a network that has no power wastes battery.
- One phone per household on standby. If you have several phones, keep one mostly switched off as a reserve.
Minutes 15 to 20: text, don’t call
FEMA’s family planning sheet says it plainly: “a text message may get through when a phone call will not,” because a text needs far less network capacity than a call (FEMA P-1094).
- Send one short check-in text to your household group and your out-of-area contact. For example: “Power out at home. All OK. Next check-in 7 pm.”
- Keep calls short and save them for things that can’t wait.
- Don’t stream video or scroll social media to find out what is going on. Your utility’s outage page and a radio use far less battery.
If you don’t have an out-of-area contact or a check-in time yet, make them part of your family comms plan.
Minutes 20 to 30: get your alerts working
- Turn on a NOAA Weather Radio that runs on batteries or a hand crank. It receives National Weather Service broadcasts directly, with no cell or internet needed (NWS).
- Check that Wireless Emergency Alerts are on in your phone’s settings. WA EMD notes that tsunami warnings reach phones only through these alerts (WA EMD).
- Make sure you are signed up for your county’s opt-in alerts. Floods and road closures often come only that way. Find your county’s link on its county page.
- See NOAA Weather Radio and emergency alerts in Washington for setup.
What not to do
These come from Ready.gov and the Washington Department of Health. Read their pages for the full safety guidance.
- Never run a generator indoors or in a garage. Ready.gov says to keep generators outdoors and at least 20 feet from windows, doors and attached garages.
- Never connect a generator to your home’s main electrical panel yourself. Washington’s Department of Health calls this dangerous. It is a job for a licensed electrician.
- Never use a gas stove or oven to heat your home, and never burn charcoal indoors. Carbon monoxide has no smell and can kill.
- Have working carbon monoxide detectors on every level of your home.
- Keep the fridge and freezer closed, and unplug sensitive electronics so a power surge can’t damage them when the power returns.
What this checklist does not do
- A battery bank keeps your phone alive, not the network. If nearby cell sites lose power or their connections, your phone can’t call or text, however full its battery is.
- Texting is more likely to get through than calling, not certain to. In a large disaster, both can fail.
- Your home Wi-Fi depends on power at your router and on your provider’s equipment down the street. A small backup battery for the router helps only if the provider’s network is still up.
For when phones stop working entirely, see satellite texting on your phone, FRS vs GMRS radios and joining your local mesh. Call 911 if you can. Mesh and radio are best-effort backups.
Before the next outage (10 minutes, today)
- Charge your battery banks, and set a monthly reminder to top them up.
- Bookmark your utility’s outage map.
- Put fresh batteries in your weather radio and flashlights.
- Write your family comms plan and put a copy on the fridge.