This post is part of a series by the Energy and Climate Change team at Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County to connect area residents to disaster preparedness resources. Our area is expected to experience more intense storm events in the coming years due to climate change. Taking steps today to prepare for emergencies can make a huge impact in staying safe tomorrow.

Recently, a number of residents from across Tompkins County agreed to an interesting experiment. Imagine that the power goes out on Friday evening and doesn’t come back on until Sunday evening. How would we cope?

The instructions were: “We will practice our resilience skills by ‘pretending’ that the power has gone out, as a controlled experiment to see how we might be better prepared for future occurrences.  This is intended to be a learning experience, not a purity test – no one will actually turn off their power. And we will not plan ahead or prepare, because the outage is not anticipated.”

That meant that there was no water, only candles or flashlights, no screen unless there were batteries … nothing that required electricity – heat, showers, cooking, refrigerator, television.

Woodstoves were cranked up, perishables were eaten quickly, bedtime came early. Each household took the experiment as far as they wanted, and some were more strict than others. But the experience brought insight to everyone, sometimes insights we didn’t expect.  After the weekend, the group gathered to debrief on what it was like.

What did people miss?

Hot tea. Music. Showers. Easily reading my book. Hot food. For those living in town, some extended the ‘game’ to imagine that the whole of Ithaca was without power, which meant a weekend totally in.

What did people notice?

The quiet – listening to the sounds of birds, trees, wind. Thoughts slowing down. Everything slowed down. Using less of the house. Becoming more aware of daylight! Water is so important.

What did people realize they needed to change?

“I don’t actually need to flip on the light every time I go into a room – I know where everything is.” Have candles and batteries on hand, and everything charged up.

“I spend so much time looking at a screen!” In the city where we can’t have woodstoves, I would not be able to stay in my home if it was winter – where would I go? How important neighbors would be!

A major question participants asked was, “Do I really need this?” The game, as a simulation of recognizing the difference between what I want, what is convenient, what is normal, and what I actually need.  We also realized how different the experience would be if power were out for a week or two. Since it was a game, even though there was frustration, everyone knew it was pretend and would be over soon. We thought about how frustrating and almost frightening it would be if it were real, and we didn’t know how long it would last, and we weren’t prepared.

The idea for this experiment came from a conversation at the regular Climate Collapse Happy Hour, where people concerned about and working on climate change come together to talk, scheme, and have a beer. The plan now is to see if other people are interested in playing the game and thinking together about want vs. need, about how we will need to adapt to long term climate change, about how to connect with others to create what we need. It is not only about being personally prepared for one outage or one disaster; it is becoming more resilient, and creating the infrastructure and systems that our community will need as the climate becomes more and more destabilized and its impacts become more severe.

We hope you are interested in playing the game with friends, neighbors, or colleagues, and we would like to hear how it goes!

While extended outages in our area are rare, they’re not unheard of, and can last longer in rural, hard to reach areas. As we have discussed in other posts, making a plan ahead of time is the best strategy for dealing with an emergency in the moment. At Extension, we’ve put together a few things to keep in mind when the power goes out. You can find that here.

For any questions, or to find out how to join a Power Out Weekend group, give us a call!

Chris Skawski , Energy & Climate Change Team Leader, (607) 272-2292 ext. 293