How to Prepare for a Power Outage

If you experience a planned or unplanned power outage, here are some tips.

Southern California Edison's Scott Gobble says customers should keep their refrigerator and freezer doors shut throughout a power outage, especially during a planned outage.

Any perishables you will use during a planned power outage should be placed in an ice chest before the scheduled outage. That way, you will not need to open your refrigerator or freezer.

When power comes back on, Gobble says customers should wait approximately 30 minutes, then dump the ice in their freezer. This prevents an automatic ice dispenser from being frozen.

Other tips from SCE are available here. The tips include the following, taken directly from the SCE website:

• "Make sure food stays as cold as possible by keeping refrigerator and freezer doors closed and placing blocks of ice inside. Learn More

• Learn how to manually open security gates and garage doors.

• Notify any security companies that monitor your home or business.

• Protect computers, televisions and other sensitive equipment by unplugging them.

• If your business has no backup power supply, consider renting one."