What to Do When You Have No Power — Emergency Steps

Step 1: Check Your Circuit Breaker Panel

Before doing anything else, determine if the problem is inside your home or from the utility:

1. Locate your electrical panel — usually in the garage, basement, utility closet, or on an exterior wall
2. Check for heat or burning smell — if the panel feels hot or smells like burning plastic, do not touch it. Call an electrician immediately.
3. Look for tripped breakers — a tripped breaker sits in the middle position between ON and OFF, or may show a red/orange indicator
4. Reset any tripped breaker — flip it fully to OFF, wait 10 seconds, then flip to ON. You should hear a click.
5. Check if it's a partial outage — if only half your house has no power, you may have lost one leg of your 240V service. This requires an electrician or utility repair — it's not a DIY fix.

If breaker reset doesn't work: Check your neighbors. If they also have no power, it's a utility outage. Report it through your utility's app, website, or outage hotline.

Step 2: Unplug Sensitive Electronics

Power surges are common when electricity is restored. The voltage spike can damage or destroy computers, TVs, gaming consoles, and smart home devices.

• Unplug computers, monitors, TVs, gaming consoles, and routers
• Leave plugged in one lamp or light — this is how you'll know power is restored
• Unplug the garage door opener to prevent it from cycling during restoration
• If you have a whole-house surge protector (typically installed at the panel), your risk is lower — but unplugging expensive electronics is still the safest move

After power returns: Wait 5 minutes before plugging electronics back in. The initial power restoration can be unstable.

Step 3: Protect Your Food

Your refrigerator and freezer become ticking clocks during a power outage:

Critical rules from the USDA and CDC:

• Do not open the fridge or freezer to check on food. Every opening loses cold air and cuts safe time significantly.
• After 4 hours without power, discard all perishable refrigerated food — meat, poultry, fish, eggs, leftovers, and dairy
• Frozen food that still contains ice crystals or feels as cold as if refrigerated (40 degrees or below) can be safely refrozen or cooked
• If the outage will last more than 6 hours, transfer perishables to a cooler with ice or frozen gel packs
• When in doubt, throw it out. Food can look and smell fine but harbor bacteria after 2+ hours above 40 degrees

Step 4: Handle Safety Hazards

Power outages create several immediate safety risks:

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is the #1 killer during extended outages. CO is an odorless, colorless gas produced by generators, gas stoves, grills, and kerosene heaters:

• Never run a generator indoors — not in the garage, not in the basement, not even with the garage door open
• Generators must be at least 20 feet from any window, door, or vent
• Never use a gas stove or oven to heat your home
• Install CO detectors with battery backup on every level of your home

Electrical hazards:

• Stay away from downed power lines — they can be energized even if they appear dead. Call 911 if you see one.
• Don't wade through flooded areas where electrical equipment or power lines may be submerged
• If you smell burning or see scorch marks on outlets or your panel after an outage, call an electrician before turning breakers back on

Step 5: Manage Temperature

During a summer outage in Phoenix (110+ degrees), Houston (95+ degrees with high humidity), or Dallas (100+ degrees), your home can reach dangerous indoor temperatures within 3–5 hours:

• Close all blinds and curtains to block solar heat gain
• Open windows on opposite sides of the house for cross-ventilation — but only if outdoor air is cooler than indoor
• If outdoor temperature exceeds indoor, keep everything sealed
• Move to the lowest level of your home — basements and ground floors are cooler
• Take cool showers and apply cold wet towels to neck and wrists
• Protect vulnerable people: Children under 5, adults over 65, and anyone with heart conditions or diabetes should move to an air-conditioned location (neighbor's house, public library, cooling center). Call 211 to find nearby cooling centers.

During a winter outage in Dallas (occasional freezing): layer clothing, use blankets, close off unused rooms to concentrate body heat, and run water at a trickle from faucets to prevent pipe freezing.

Step 6: Know When It's an Electrical Emergency

Some power problems aren't outages — they're emergencies. Call a licensed electrician (or 911) immediately if you notice:

• Burning smell from outlets, switches, or the breaker panel — this means wiring is overheating and a fire may be starting
• Sparking or smoking outlets — shut off the breaker to that circuit immediately if you can safely reach the panel
• Hot outlets or switch plates — warmth means an overloaded circuit or damaged wiring behind the wall
• Buzzing or crackling sounds from walls or the panel — indicates arcing, which is a fire hazard
• Breaker trips repeatedly after resetting — something is causing a short circuit. Do not keep resetting it.
• Fishy smell with no fish — melting wire insulation often smells like fish before it smells like burning plastic. This is an early fire warning.

These are fire risks, not inconveniences. Electrical fires start inside walls where you can't see them. If you detect any of these signs, turn off the main breaker and call for help.

Step 7: Prepare for the Next Outage

Once power is restored, take these steps to be ready next time:

• Label your breaker panel — mark which breaker controls each room and circuit
• Install a whole-house surge protector at your panel ($200–$500 installed) — this protects everything from restoration surges
• Buy battery-powered or hand-crank flashlights — not candles, which are a fire hazard
• Keep your phone charged — a $20 portable battery bank gives you 2–3 full charges
• Consider a portable generator ($400–$2,000) or battery backup system ($3,000–$15,000) if outages are frequent in your area
• Freeze water bottles — they serve double duty as ice packs for coolers and drinking water as they melt

Information reflects current electrical safety guidelines from Ready.gov, the CDC, USDA, and the American Red Cross as of early 2026. Emergency electrician costs typically run $150–$250/hour for after-hours service. For electrical pricing in your area, see our electrician cost guide for Dallas. For AC-related emergencies, see what to do when your AC stops working.