More than 1.7 million customers remained without electricity Wednesday from North Carolina to Maine as a result of Irene's wrath, the U.S. Department of Energy said.
As residents who are battling flooding and power outages enter another day without power, concerns about how they can stay connected and what they can eat and drink are becoming more of an issue.
If you haven't prepared a kit or stocked up with the appropriate foods, this is the time when things can start to get a little tricky.
So, what do you need to keep in mind during the power outage?
The big three things to focus on, according to the Red Cross, are your food, any electrical equipment, generators and being aware of carbon monoxide. Here are some tips from the FDA, USDA, CDC and The Red Cross on what to do.
Manage your electric equipment
When it comes to alternative power sources, beware of carbon monoxide
"The primary hazards to avoid when using alternate sources for electricity, heating or cooking are carbon monoxide poisoning, electric shock and fire," the Red Cross warns. A few tips on how to make sure you avoid coming into contact with it:
Maintain safe drinking water
The CDC says that when power is out some water purification systems may not fully function. Therefore, the best option for drinking, cooking and cleaning yourself includes bottled, boiled and treated water. Here are the CDC's rules when it comes to water in a power outage:
Your food: What you can keep and what you should throw out
Your refrigerator will only keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened and a full freezer will keep the temperature for approximately 48 hours, but only if the door remains closed. In this case, those without power have likely hit that threshold. If you don't have dry ice to keep these items from going bad, consumption may leave you susceptible to illness from spoiled food.
So what should you do now that the 48 hours has passed?
Check, check, check for flooding
If you're one of the people who not only has to deal with power outages but flooding in your home, you'll need to be even more careful about the food you eat.
The USDA also provides specific guidelines on what to do with specific foods. Here's the list for what food you should throw out if it has been in temperatures above 40 °F for more than 2 hours in a refrigerator:
MEAT, POULTRY, SEAFOOD
Throw out: Raw or leftover cooked meat, poultry, fish, or seafood; soy meat substitutes; thawing meat or poultry; meat, tuna, shrimp, chicken, or egg salad; gravy, stuffing, broth; lunch meat, hot dogs, bacon, sausage, dried beef; pizza – with any topping ; canned hams labeled "Keep Refrigerated" or opened canned meats and fish.
CHEESE
Throw out: Soft cheeses like blue/bleu, Roquefort, Brie, Camembert, cottage, cream, Edam, Monterey jack, ricotta, mozzarella, Muenster, Neufchatel, queso blanco, queso fresco; shredded cheese or low-fat cheese.
Save: Hard cheeses like cheddar, colby, Swiss, parmesan, provolone or Romano; processed cheese; grated parmesan or romano cheese
DAIRY
Throw out: Milk, cream, sour cream, buttermilk, evaporated milk, yogurt, eggnog, soy milk; open baby formula and all types of eggs, custards and puddings.
FRUITS:
Throw out: Fresh fruit or cut fruit
Save: Fruit juices and canned fruits even if they are opened; coconut, raisins, dried fruits, candied fruits or dates.
SAUCES, SPREADS, JAMS
Throw out: Opened mayonnaise, tartar sauce, horseradish or fish sauces (like oyster sauce); opened creamy-based dressings or opened spaghetti sauce.
Save: Peanut butter, jelly, relish, taco sauce, mustard, catsup, olives, pickles, Worcestershire, soy, barbecue or Hoisin sauces and opened vinegar-based dressings.
BREAD, CAKES, COOKIES, PASTA, GRAINS
Throw out: Refrigerator biscuits, rolls, cookie dough; cooked pasta, rice, potatoes; pasta salads with mayonnaise or vinaigrette; fresh pasta, cheesecake,
Save: Bread, rolls, cakes, muffins, quick breads, tortillas, waffles, pancakes or bagels.
PIES, PASTRY
Throw out: Cream-filled pastries; custard,cheese filled, or chiffon pies
Save: Fruit pies
VEGETABLES
Throw out: Cooked vegetables; pre-cut, pre-washed or packaged greens;Â tofu; opened vegetable juice, baked potatoes, commercial garlic in oil and potato salad.
Save: Fresh mushrooms, herbs, spices; raw vegetables;
HA HAA HA HAAA HAAAA. Your electrisity is out and mine is noooooOOOoooot. I ROCK.
One thing that the News hasn't mentioned, is that most stores can't operate without electricity. All of their point of sale registers are tied to their computers to track inventory, and none of that works without power. In power out situations, we found that the small mom-and-pop stores are your best bet, as they are able to sell you what you need now, and catch up with the inventory later. That's a luxury that the chain stores don't have.
Agreed. We realized we had to pre-purchase regular and unleaded fuel, and pull out ATM cash in advance. It was frustrating for folks to have debit cards, plenty of money, and no way to purchase what was right in front of them. Larger stores were unable to open their doors for days, and their inventory system (down from no power) prevented them from handing out what eventually went bad. Local stores were MUCH more able to move realistically.
Publics Super Markets are all built with generators in place, but I think they are only in the South, our Home Depot, and Lowes also had generators in place. Fuel is a problem since the tanks are under ground for the most part and without power you can't pump fuel.
We froze cases of bottled water just before Irene knocked power out 120 hrs ago. We stored HALF the amount of water/ice this way and it did not melt as fast or get everything wet. We had to take the tops off all the bottles and pour a bit out of each before freezing (expands). Trick in the future is getting the freezing under way in time. We were lucky.
Inverter lesson learned. We had two 2,000 Watt Inverters and four 12v batteries charged up. When the power went out, we wasted an important whole day futzing with BOTH inverters that have turned out to be not functioning. I wish we had tested the battery/inverter combos on our refrigerator and then again on our freezer way in advance of the power going off. We'd have replaced them before it was too late.
Generator. 5500Watt 240V 20Amp NorthStar Generator — 270cc, 5500 Surge Watts, 4500 Rated Watts, Gasoline we found at northerntool .com for $1,500.00. Recommend getting at least three 5-gallon cans filled with fuel to go between trips to go get more gas (every two days or so). In our case, our water is in a well next to the home 240V. This generator, a not cheap extension cord, and about $400.00 of hired electrician work allowed us to ka-chunk off our main breaker, fire it up, plug it into the house, and bring the well and pressure pump online. We alternated between recharging house water system (and HW) and recharging the refrigerator and chest freezer. Bigger generator would eat fuel too fast. Smaller won't run the well. Worked out perfect for house family of 4.
We had a 4 1/2 day outage, we have a generator, but fuel is a real problem, it has a storage life and most service station tanks are underground and they can't pump fuel. For the most part I think you should set up to live without a generator.
The things that saved us was, gas grill, gas water heater (our city water stayed on), and a 400 watt inverter that I could connect to the car. The inverter would run the PC and a small flat screen TV. Our power outage wasn't predicted, a tornado took out over 100 high voltage power towers, so that makes it hard to get fuel ahead of time.
We had no local damage from the storms just power outage, I would recommend not to let your car get below 1/4 tank. All traffic signals become 4 way stops, so travel is a little slower.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JywK_5bT8z0&w=640&h=390]
>>> Still without power? Here's what you need to know <<<
a) You won't be able to read this web page.
When we were out for 4 and half days I used a 400 watt inverter on the car battery, would run PC, dsl modem, and 19 inch flat screen TV. If you run it until the inverter cuts off you will need jumper cables and another car to jump it from. Our cable TV, DSL, and land line phone all stayed up, the cell phones not so good.
If they are without power how can they read this on a computer screen? Duhhhhhhhhh!
Us people in the back woods have kerosene power PCs.
@mdmooser: with a back up generator duuhhhhhh
maybee it's time for a government investment into our power infrastructure?