Know How You Can Stay Safe and Get Through Until Power Gets Restored to You

Storms that are severe enough to bring down power lines are all too frequent, and when power lines are brought down during a storm, they can present more than just an inconvenience. Downed power lines usually still carry live electricity, and inadvertently coming into contact with one is likely to result in either death or serious injury.

The length of time that it takes to get your power supply back to normal will depend on just how bad the storm was, and how much devastation it has caused. Sometimes, it is not safe for the engineers to get to the scene of the fault in order to begin correcting the problem, and this is something that can make your wait a bit longer.

What you should do during a Power Outage

As we mentioned above, just because a power line is down and damaged, doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t have hundreds of volts of electricity surging through it. Every power line that has come down during a storm has the potential to deliver a lethal amount of electricity to anyone or anything living thing that comes in to contact with it. If you see a downed power line, stay away from it, and keep other people away from it.

If your home has been flooded, you should never attempt to enter the basement, or indeed any other room where the electrical outlets are submerged in water. This is because there is a good chance that the water has been energized, and will give you a lethal electric shock when you enter it.

You should never enter a flooded property until you know that the energy company has managed to disconnect the mains electrical supply.

For appliances that have become water damaged, you should avoid operating them until you know that they are safe or have been repaired.

During a power outage, it is advisable that you disconnect as many electrical appliances that you can, and this is due to the fact that when the power is restored it often comes back on in surges. These surges can often cause an overload that can damage appliances and other electrical items such as televisions and computers. In order to alert you to the fact the power has been restored, you should leave a single light in the “on” position, which will illuminate when the power comes back on.