Winter Storms

With high winds and heavy accumulations of ice and snow, winter storms can cause outages. To be prepared, experts suggest you should be ready to meet your family's basic needs for up to three days. Make sure you are ready with:

  • Light. Keep a flashlight and extra batteries handy. Use care when burning candles; open flames are a dangerous fire hazard.
  • Warmth. Have extra blankets or a sleeping bag for each person. Do not use gas stoves, grills or other open-flame appliances as a heat source. They could cause deadly carbon monoxide gas could build up in your home.
  • Water. If you have a water well and pump, keep an emergency supply of bottled water.
  • Food. If your home has an electric range, stock an emergency supply of convenience foods that do not require cooking.
  • News and information. Keep a battery-powered radio with extra batteries on hand. You can view current outages on our 24/7 Power Center outage maps, and follow us on social media for updates during significant storms.
  • Means of communication. While a cell phone will work as long as its battery is charged and the nearest cell tower has power or backup power, many cordless land-line telephones require a plug-in power source to operate, and may not work if a power outage occurs. You may want to keep a plain, hard-wired telephone handy to report your power outage (888-544-4877) or to call for help in an emergency. These phones operate on power delivered through the phone line.

For more information, check the National Weather Service Severe Weather Information* site.

Still need help?
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