/ first_moves
Do these first
/ failure_mode
How this plan fails
Carbon monoxide can kill without warning. Never run generators, grills, camp stoves, or fuel heaters inside or near doors, windows, or vents.
/ avoid
Do not spend your first mistake here
- Heating a home with a gas oven.
- Running a generator in a garage, basement, porch, balcony, or near a window.
Power planning is load triage. Phones, radios, lights, medical devices, and temperature control sit at the top. Entertainment sits at the bottom.
Make the first hour boring. Put flashlights where people can reach them. Turn one radio on for official alerts. Decide what battery gets saved for medical equipment, communication, and navigation. If somebody depends on powered medical gear, write the backup plan down before the outage.
Fuel power is not indoor power. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no visible warning. Treat every generator and fuel-burning device as outside equipment, and keep a working carbon monoxide alarm in the house.
When the building cannot stay warm or cool enough, leaving for a safer place is not failure. It is the plan working.