How to Survive a Three-Day Blackout
Blackouts are the disaster everyone actually gets. Storms take out lines, heat overloads the network, a car hits a pole, a substation fails. Most outages last an hour or two. Some do not.
After the February 2024 Victorian storms, more than 127,000 customers were still without supply a day later, and a week on, roughly 2,600 homes and 500 businesses were still dark. Outage trends generally rose between 2019 and 2022, with extreme weather — storms and heatwaves — a bigger factor than it was five years earlier.
An hour without power is an inconvenience. Three days is a genuine event: food, medication, water in an apartment, heat with no cooling, no EFTPOS, no phone network once the tower batteries run down. It is also the most preparable event on this site, because the failures are so predictable.
The 10-minute version
- Write down the time the power went off. Every food decision for the next three days depends on that number, and nobody remembers it accurately later.
- Do not open the fridge or freezer. A closed fridge holds temperature for about 4–6 hours; a full freezer about 48 hours, half-full about 24. Every look costs you hours.
- Put your phone in low power mode immediately and stop scrolling. Your phone is your torch, radio, contact list and payment method. Treat the battery as a fuel gauge.
The first ten minutes
Do these in order.
- Note the time. On paper, on the whiteboard, on your hand. This is the single most useful thing you will do.
- Check whether it is just you. Look at the street. If neighbours have power, it is your switchboard — check the safety switch before you report anything.
- Report it and get the estimate. Your electricity distributor — not your retailer — handles outages, and their site or recorded line will have a restoration estimate. Save that number in your phone now, before you need it. If you see fallen powerlines, stay at least eight metres clear and call 000. Assume every downed line is live.
- Low power mode on every phone. Turn off anything that is not needed. In poor coverage a phone burns battery hunting for signal, so airplane mode with periodic check-ins conserves far more than you would expect.
- Find the torches before dark. Not after. Headlamps beat hand torches for anything that requires two hands.
- Fill containers with water. If you are in an apartment or on tank water with an electric pump, your supply stops when the pump does. Fill the bath, the sinks, and every bottle and pot while the pressure lasts.
The food safety clock
This is the part almost nobody knows, and it decides how much money you lose.
The fridge. A closed fridge stays cold for roughly four to six hours. What matters is how long the food has been above 5°C:
| Time above 5°C | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Under 2 hours | Safe. Keep it |
| 2 to 4 hours | Use it immediately — cook and eat now, do not put it back |
| More than 4 hours | Throw it out |
The freezer. Kept shut, a full freezer holds food frozen for up to about 48 hours; a half-full one about 24. Food that is still at 0°C or below, or still has visible ice crystals, can be refrozen or used. Above 0°C, discard it.
Three rules that follow:
- A $6 fridge thermometer settles every argument. Temperature is the only reliable test. Smell is not a test — plenty of dangerous food smells fine.
- Fill the freezer’s empty space with bottles of water before storm season. A full freezer holds cold roughly twice as long as a half-empty one, and you end up with drinking water and ice bricks.
- Eat in order: fridge first, then freezer, then pantry. Cook the expensive fridge protein early in the window while it is still safely usable, rather than watching it cross the four-hour line.
When in doubt, throw it out. A binned chicken costs $12. Campylobacter costs you a week.
The medication problem
This is the failure that turns a blackout from expensive into dangerous, and it gets almost no coverage.
If anyone in the house depends on mains power for a medical device — a CPAP, oxygen concentrator, home dialysis, a feeding pump, a powered wheelchair — you should be registered as a life support customer with your energy retailer. Registration means you get advance notice of planned outages and are flagged in the system. It takes one phone call and a form signed by a doctor, and it is worth doing this week rather than during an outage.
For refrigerated medication, the practical approach is a cool chain, not a freezer: an esky, ice bricks or frozen water bottles, a towel between the ice and the medication so nothing freezes, and a thermometer inside the esky. Do not guess at what a given medication tolerates — the storage window differs by drug, and your pharmacist knows it. Ring them; pharmacies handle this question constantly and can also arrange an emergency supply if a script is stranded. Detail is in Keeping Medication Cold Without Power.
Everyone else: know where a week of your regular medication is, and keep it in the go-bag rather than the bathroom cabinet.
Heat, cold and the thing that kills people
Heatwaves and blackouts arrive together, because heat drives the demand that breaks the network. That combination is the dangerous one, particularly for anyone elderly, very young, pregnant, or living alone with a chronic condition.
Without aircon:
- Close curtains and blinds on the sunny side early in the morning, before the heat arrives. Shading the glass is more effective than anything you do later.
- Move to the lowest, most southern, most shaded room in the house.
- Wet a T-shirt or towel and put it on the back of your neck. Cool water on skin sheds heat far faster than a fan alone.
- Cool showers, repeatedly. Not cold — cool.
- Drink before you are thirsty. Thirst lags dehydration.
- Check on anyone vulnerable in person, twice a day. Heat deaths are overwhelmingly people alone indoors. A phone call is not a check; heat confusion sounds fine on the phone.
- If the house will not come down below about 30°C, leave. A shopping centre, library or a friend’s place with power is a legitimate plan, not a defeat.
In the cold: one warm room, door closed, everyone in it. Layers of wool or fleece, hats indoors, and blankets over the windows at night. Never a barbecue, camp stove, patio heater or generator indoors, in a garage, or near an open window — see below.
Carbon monoxide: the rule with no exceptions
Every year people die heating or cooking indoors with something designed for outdoors. Carbon monoxide has no smell, no taste and no warning, and the early symptoms — headache, nausea, drowsiness — look exactly like a stressful day.
Never run any of these indoors, in a garage, on an enclosed balcony, or near an open window or door: generators, barbecues (gas or charcoal), camp stoves, patio heaters, unflued gas heaters not designed for indoor use, or a car engine.
Generators go outside, well clear of the building and away from every opening. If you own one, read Generator Safety before storm season, not during it.
Money, water and the rest of day two
Cash. EFTPOS goes down with the power, and so do ATMs. Keep $200 in small notes in the kit. On a long outage, shops that can trade will trade in cash only, and nobody has change for a fifty.
Fuel. Petrol stations need power to pump. A blackout that covers your suburb may cover the servo, so the rule is to refill at half a tank during storm season rather than at the light.
Water. Mains pressure usually survives, but pumps do not — apartments above a certain height and any tank system with an electric pump lose supply. Fill everything early. Plan on 3 litres per person per day for drinking.
Communications. Mobile towers run on batteries with a finite life, so coverage can degrade hours into an outage even where your phone is fine. A battery or wind-up radio tuned to ABC Local Radio is the one piece of equipment with no substitute. Texts get through gaps that defeat calls, and an out-of-area contact is more reachable than a local one.
Sewage. If you are on a septic system with a pump, be sparing. If you are on mains, you are usually fine.
What actually goes wrong
The fridge gets opened repeatedly by people looking for something to eat, and a six-hour buffer becomes three.
Nobody wrote down the start time, so every food decision becomes a guess and the household argues about whether the mince is fine.
The torch has dead batteries, or is in the shed, or is a phone with 12% charge.
Candles. They are the traditional answer and they cause house fires in exactly these conditions. If you use them, use them on a hard surface, away from anything soft, never in a bedroom, and never unattended. Battery lanterns cost $10 and do not burn the house down.
The medication problem is discovered at hour six, when the pharmacy is also dark.
Someone runs a generator or barbecue inside because it is cold or raining.
Nobody checks on the elderly neighbour until day two.
The gate, garage or building door is electric and nobody knows the manual release. Find yours now: most roller doors have a cord, and most electric gates have a key or a lever.
What it costs
| Tier | Spend | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Distributor’s outage number saved; a note where you will record the time; bottles of water in freezer gaps; knowledge of the food safety clock; knowing your garage and gate manual releases; a bath filled when a storm warning is issued |
| Solid | ~$90–160 | Headlamp plus a battery lantern ($25), battery radio ($20), 10,000 mAh power bank ($30), fridge thermometer ($6), $200 cash, three days of no-cook food ($40) |
| Comfortable | ~$350–600 | The above plus an esky with ice bricks, a camp stove with fuel for outdoor use, a 40 L water container, a second power bank or a 20 W solar panel, and a week of shelf-stable food |
| Serious | $1,200+ | A portable power station large enough to run a CPAP and a small fridge overnight, or a properly installed and interlocked generator. Only worth it if someone in the house is power-dependent |
If you buy one thing, buy the battery radio. If you buy two, add the power bank.
The drill: a deliberate four-hour blackout
Pick a Saturday afternoon. Turn off the main breaker. Do not tell anyone in advance.
- Note the time — practise the habit.
- Find your torches in under two minutes. Most households fail this immediately.
- Do not open the fridge for the whole four hours. See whether the household can actually do it.
- Make a meal with no power. Discover whether your can opener is electric, whether you own matches, and whether the “no-cook food” in the cupboard is actually edible cold.
- Tune the radio and find ABC Local. Practise it now, not in the dark.
- Check your phone’s battery drop over four hours in low power mode. That is your real runtime.
- Find the manual release for the garage door and the gate.
- Turn the power back on and write down the three things that did not work.
Then buy those three things. The list is always short and always cheap, and you will have found it on a comfortable Saturday instead of during a storm.
Frequently asked questions
How long does food last in the fridge without power?
A closed fridge holds temperature for about four to six hours. Food above 5°C for less than two hours is fine; two to four hours means use it immediately; more than four hours means throw it out. A full freezer holds about 48 hours, half-full about 24.
Can I refreeze food that thawed?
If it is still at 0°C or below, or still has visible ice crystals, yes. If it has been above 0°C, discard it. Check with a thermometer rather than by feel.
Who do I call about a power outage?
Your electricity distributor, not your retailer — the distributor owns the poles and wires and publishes restoration estimates. Save that number now. For fallen powerlines, stay eight metres clear and call 000.
Is it safe to run a generator in the garage with the door open?
No. Carbon monoxide accumulates in garages and enclosed spaces even with the door open, and it gives no warning. Generators run outdoors, well away from the building and clear of every window and door.
What about someone on a CPAP or oxygen concentrator?
Register them as a life support customer with your energy retailer — one call and a doctor’s form — and work out a battery or portable power station solution before storm season. This is the highest-priority item in any household with a power-dependent occupant.
Why do I need cash?
EFTPOS terminals and ATMs need power. In a widespread outage, the shops that can trade will be cash-only, and nobody will have change. Two hundred dollars in small notes covers a few days.
My phone still works but the internet is down. Why?
Your phone and the network are separate problems. Mobile towers run on backup batteries with a limited life, and fixed broadband needs powered equipment at both ends. A text often gets through when a call or data will not.