In the first hour of an average day, you probably get woken by an alarm clock, check your smartphone, sip on a cup of coffee while watching the news, and rinse off in a hot shower. Each one of those activities can only be enjoyed thanks to our modern system of electricity.

Unfortunately for us and the luxurious way of life we've grown accustomed to, power outages come with the territory of being connected to grids—and those outages are on the rise. Pew Charitable Trusts concluded in a 2015 study that the United States experiences more power outages than any other developed nation in the world. This is largely due to two factors: our outdated electrical grid, much of which was put into place before World War II and isn't able to handle increased demand; and extreme weather events.

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Climate Central, an organization that conducts scientific research on climate change, found that severe weather caused 80% of power outages over nine years. These extreme weather events can be everything from a hurricane to a tornado to subzero freezes to heatwaves. With hurricane season upon us, and heat waves blanketing large swaths of the country, it seems as good a time as any to highlight ways to prepare for the power outages that are most certainly to come.

How to prepare for power outages

 

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