This week, I thought I'd post about snow days.  Depending on where you live, snow days may be a typical part of winter.

Today, I want to look at preparing for a very bad part of snow days:  the possibility of a loss of power.  Winter weather can lead to power outages in several ways.  The eight of snow or ice can bring down a power line.  Snow and ice can build up on branches and, when they fall, they take out power lines.  Cars sliding on ice can hit poles and take out lines.  Transformers can freeze.  These and other circumstances make power outages all too common in winter months.

My power was out for about 22 hours last week (no power means no computer and no wireless router, so no blog posts).  It reminded me of the need to be prepared in the event of a power outage.  Here are some basic things to keep in mind:

• If possible, make sure you have access to a non-cordless landline.  A cordless phone will run out of power fairly quickly if it isn't recharged. If you only have a cell phone, you may want to keep an emergency charger handy.  If you have more than one cell in the house, turn them on one at a time to lengthen battery life until you have a chance to recharge.
• Make sure you have flashlights or camping lanterns and plenty of extra batteries.  Once a power outage strikes, finding batteries becomes impossible.
• Candles give off more light than you'd expect, though you must watch them carefully for safety.  (NEVER let candles burn all night.)  Make sure you have matches handy.  Also, think twice about depending on a variety of scented candles.  If the scents clash, you'll give yourself a headache.
• Typically, when the power goes out, you lose heat.  Wearing multiple layers and using warm blankets can help in the short term.  If you have a fireplace, make sure you keep sufficeint kindling and firewood on hand and that evereyone in the house is well-versed in fire safety.  If you have household members with health issues or pets, you may want to have a Plan B for a place where they can stay warm.
• You will lose the ability to cook if you have an electric stove or if you depend on the microwave.  Keeping a hand can opener and some easy to eat foods (such as tuna or canned meat) may not be yummy, but it will feed you.
• If your house gets below 50 degrees you need to worry about the pipes.  Turn on a faucet to just a trickle to keep the water flowing.

Tomorrow, we'll look at the fun side of snow days.