Shelter & Home Security · Staying Home
Staying home through a long disruption.
How to make your home work for two weeks when the power, the stores, or the roads don't.
The short version
Your home is already the plan.
A winter storm, a hurricane that takes out power for a week, a supply problem that empties shelves: for most of these, most households are safest staying where they are. Your home already has your bed, your food, your medicines, and your people.
This guide shows how to make it work without the services you usually count on. It covers the stay-or-go decision, the six jobs your home has to keep doing, one room set up as your household's base, and how to build out your setup at whatever budget and pace suit you.
It doesn't cover sealing a room against a chemical release or taking cover from a tornado. Those are short, specific protocols with their own guide: what shelter-in-place means. It also doesn't cover firearms or confrontation. A home with water, warmth, light, and neighbors who know you is the goal.
The first decision
Stay or go: three things change the answer.
Staying home is the default, not a rule. Everything else on this page assumes the house is safe and staying is the right call.
Officials tell you to leave
The Red Cross says to be ready to evacuate quickly and leave the area if local officials tell you to.1 An evacuation order means officials have information you don't. Go.
The house gets too hot or cold
The Red Cross advises leaving if your home becomes too hot or too cold, and notes that communities often open warming or cooling centers.2 Know where yours is before you need it.
Someone needs powered equipment
The same guidance applies if anyone in your home uses medical devices that need power.2 Talk with your doctor or equipment provider now about what you'd do in an outage.
Keep a bag packed anyway. Plans change, and a ready bag makes leaving calm instead of rushed. For setting your own thresholds ahead of time, see when to stay and when to leave.
What matters most
Six jobs your home has to keep doing.
Water, food, temperature, light and power, health, and news. Each one links to the section of the site that covers it in depth.
01 · Water
A gallon per person, per day
The CDC's minimum is a three-day supply, and it recommends two weeks if you can manage it.3 The Red Cross recommends at least two weeks of water and non-perishable food for power outages.2 A household of four needs 56 gallons for two weeks.
If you fill your own containers, replace the water every six months. Keep it somewhere cool (50°F to 70°F), out of sunlight, and away from gasoline or pesticides.3
Drink what you need. Ready.gov says not to ration drinking water unless authorities tell you to.4
02 · Food
Start with the fridge, not the cabinets
A closed refrigerator keeps food safe for about four hours without power. A full freezer holds about 48 hours, a half-full one about 24, as long as the door stays closed.5
After that, temperature decides. Throw out perishable food (meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, leftovers) that has been at 40°F or warmer for more than two hours. Never taste food to decide whether it's safe.5 An appliance thermometer in each unit settles the question.
Your cabinets are for the second week. Stock foods your household already eats, and rotate them into regular meals.
03 · Warmth and cooling
Heat one room, and do it safely
In the cold, heat the room you're living in, not the whole house. Keep anything that can burn at least three feet from space heaters, fireplaces, and wood stoves. Turn portable heaters off when you leave the room or go to sleep, and plug them straight into the wall, not an extension cord.6 Never heat your home with a gas range or oven.7
In the heat, fans help you feel better, but the CDC is clear that when it's really hot, they won't prevent heat illness. Cool showers, extra water, and even a few hours somewhere air-conditioned make the real difference.8 A house that stays dangerously hot is a reason to go.
04 · Light and power
The generator goes outside, 20 feet out
Use battery flashlights and lanterns instead of candles.7 Headlamps free your hands for cooking and caring for kids.
Run a portable generator outdoors only, at least 20 feet from your home, with the exhaust pointed away from windows, doors, and vents. Never run one inside a home, garage, basement, crawlspace, or shed, even with the doors or windows open.9 Keep working CO alarms (battery-operated or with battery backup) on every level and outside sleeping areas, and when shopping, look for a model with an automatic CO shut-off.9
Charcoal grills and camp stoves stay outdoors too, never inside the home.7 Unplug appliances and electronics during an outage to protect them from a surge when power comes back.2
05 · Health and sanitation
Medicines, hygiene, and the toilet
Refill regular prescriptions on time so you're never down to the last few days, and keep glasses, contact supplies, and over-the-counter basics with your supplies.10 If the power is out for a day or more, the CDC says to throw away medicines that need refrigeration unless the label says otherwise.7 Ask your pharmacist ahead of time about any medicine you can't easily replace.
Ready.gov's basic kit includes moist towelettes, garbage bags, and plastic ties for personal sanitation.10 If the water stops and the toilet won't flush, the step-by-step method lives in its own guide.
06 · Information
A radio that doesn't need the cell tower
Your phone may work for a while, and it may not. A battery or hand-crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert are on Ready.gov's basic kit list,10 and a radio keeps working when cell service doesn't.
Keep phone chargers and a backup battery charged.2 Write family phone numbers on paper.
Home base
Set up one room as your base.
When a disruption runs more than a day, most households end up living in one room anyway. Choosing it ahead of time makes everything easier: one place to keep warm or cool, one place for the supplies, one place everyone knows.
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1
Pick the room
In cold weather, a smaller room with fewer windows is easier to keep warm. In hot weather, pick the coolest room in the house.
-
2
Put the supplies within reach
Flashlights, radio, chargers, first aid kit, medicines, and a day's water, all in one bin in one known spot.
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3
Post the essentials
Family phone numbers on paper, where the utility shutoffs are, and the address of your nearest warming or cooling center.
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4
Check the alarms
Test the smoke and CO alarms that cover the room.
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5
Make it livable
Books, cards, a charged tablet with downloaded shows. Comfort matters over two weeks, especially for kids.
Three levels
Build it out at your own pace.
There's no finish line. Some people handle the basics in a weekend and move on. Others enjoy speccing out a setup the way someone else plans a workshop or a kitchen. Both are good preparedness.
Level 1
Apartment basics
Two weeks of water and food your household already eats, headlamps and lanterns, a battery or hand-crank radio, a first aid kit, a power bank or two, and a plan for where you'd go if the building gets too hot or cold. No drilling, no fuel storage, fits in a closet.
- 7-gallon water containers: about $15 to $20 each
- Emergency radio: about $60 to $80
- Headlamps: about $20 each
- Lanterns: about $20 for a four-pack
- Power bank: under $20 to about $40
Level 2
The solid household
Everything in Level 1, plus a portable power station for phones, lights, and small devices, a safe backup heat plan with CO alarms, appliance thermometers, labeled utility shutoffs, and a pantry you rotate through.
- Small power station (about 300Wh): about $170 to $300
- Mid-size power station (about 1,000Wh): about $400 to $500
- CO alarms: about $25 to $35 each
Level 3
The fully built home
A properly installed standby generator or a solar-and-battery system with a transfer switch, rainwater or well backup, a deep rotating pantry, and ham or GMRS radio. It's a real project with real costs, and plenty of people enjoy it for its own sake.
If this is your hobby, build it well. Price it by installed quote, since site and wiring change the number more than the equipment does, and pay a licensed electrician for anything that connects to your house wiring.
Prices are typical ranges from our review pages and change often. New World Survival earns a small commission on qualifying Amazon purchases at no cost to you. This helps us cover operating costs and keep building new content. Commission never decides a recommendation.
Security without the drama
Locks, lights, and neighbors.
During a long disruption, home security looks the same as it does any other week: good locks used every day, exterior lighting, and neighbors who notice things. Locks and lights deter and delay. Nothing prevents every problem.
The most useful security step during an outage is often just knocking on the doors on either side of you. People who check on each other notice when something is wrong.
When it starts
The first few hours.
- 1Check on everyone in the house, then call or text your out-of-area contact.
- 2Tune in to local officials on the radio or your phone. An evacuation order overrides everything on this page.
- 3Keep the fridge and freezer closed. Note the time the power went out.5
- 4Unplug electronics to protect them from a surge.2
- 5Set up your base room and move the supplies bin there.
- 6If you run a generator, place it now, outdoors, 20 feet from the house, exhaust away from openings, before you need it after dark.9
- 7Check on the neighbors, especially anyone older or living alone.
Quick checklist
Just getting started? Three days of supplies is the first step, and how much to keep covers the longer ladder.
Common mistakes
Six habits worth unlearning.
Generator in the garage, door open
An open door doesn't make it safe. Outdoors, 20 feet away, exhaust pointed away.9
Heating with the oven
Never use a gas range or oven to heat your home.7
Candles for light
Battery flashlights and lanterns carry less fire risk.7
Tasting food to check it
Temperature decides, not taste.5
Rationing drinking water
Drink what you need today and work on tomorrow's supply.4
Counting on a fan in a heat wave
Fans help you feel better but won't prevent heat illness in serious heat.8
Keep going
Starting from nothing? What to do if the power is already out. For the wider two-week picture, see the first two weeks.
Shelter & Home SecuritySources (accessed September 28, 2026)
- American Red Cross, Do You Know How to Get Ready in Case You Have to Evacuate?
- American Red Cross, Power Outage Safety
- CDC, How to Create an Emergency Water Supply
- Ready.gov, Water
- FoodSafety.gov (USDA and FDA), Food Safety During Power Outage
- U.S. Fire Administration, Heating Fire Safety
- CDC, What to Do to Protect Yourself During a Power Outage
- CDC, Heat and People with Low Incomes
- CPSC, CPSC Warns of Generator, Carbon Monoxide and Fire Hazards Ahead of Hurricane Season (May 27, 2026)
- Ready.gov, Build a Kit
Continue reading
What’s next
Energy
Power Outage Action Plan
What changes when a power outage passes 24 hours. The freezer decision, generator fuel budgeting, light discipline, and the signals that mean it is time to leave.
Preparedness
First 24 Hours
The first day of a disruption, in order. What to do in the first ten minutes, how long the refrigerator holds, and the carbon-monoxide mistake that kills people every year.
Food
Food Safety
Power-outage food decisions, safe cooking without electricity, and the temperature rules that protect your household. Grounded in USDA guidance.
Planning
Hazard-Specific Planning
Planning for the specific hazards that threaten your area. What sets each hazard apart, watch versus warning, and pre-decided action triggers.