The lights go out. The house goes quiet. Nothing in the next ten minutes needs speed — it needs order. Here is the sequence.
1. Look outside
Check the neighbors and the street lights. If their lights are on, the problem is your house: check your breaker panel, flip a tripped breaker once, and if it trips again call an electrician. If the whole street is dark, it's a real outage — report it to your power company and start your plan. If you see a downed line, stay far away, keep kids and pets inside, and call 911. Treat every downed line as live.
2. Battery light, not candles
Candles start house fires — a flame near a curtain, a pet, or a sleepy kid is a risk you don't need. Use flashlights, headlamps, or battery lanterns. One lantern per occupied room beats one flashlight passed around.
3. Check on everyone
Walk the house. Find each kid, each pet. Then say it in a plain voice: "The power is out. We have a plan. You're going to help." Kids take their cue from your tone.
4. Unplug the electronics you'd hate to replace
Power sometimes returns with a surge. Unplug the TV, computers, consoles, and the microwave. Leave one lamp switched on — it announces the moment power returns.
5. Close the fridge — and keep it closed
4 hours of safety in the fridge, about 48 in a full freezer — but only if the doors stay shut. Make it a family rule out loud.
Then what?
The first hour is about water, information, and picking one room to live in — that's the next chapter of the free Blackout Playbook, which ships with every Bastion kit. Ten minutes of reading while the lights are still on.