The tools
- Portable generator
- Emergency weather radio
- Surge protector
- Uninterruptible power supply
- USB battery pack for phones and tablets
- USB battery pack for laptops
- Portable power station
- Power inverter
- Inflatable solar lantern
- LED lantern
- Flashlight
- Headlamp
- Water container
- Board game
- What to know about large solar power and battery backup systems
Portable generator
Top pick
A portable generator is a moderate investment, but if you regularly experience multi-day outages, it’s one worth making. The Westinghouse iGen5000DFc offers 3,900 running watts, enough to keep the essentials going, including most small appliances, though it likely won’t have enough power to support large-draw items like a whole-house AC or a clothes dryer.
The Westinghouse iGen5000DFc meets all of our must-have criteria—it has a closed frame for quieter operation, it’s an inverter model which provides cleaner power to protect sensitive electronics, and it has a CO detector which will automatically shut off the machine if it detects dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. This model also has a remote start feature, which we don’t often see in other models at this price and wattage range. We also like its dual-fuel capabilities, meaning it can run on either gas or propane—a nice feature when fuel can become difficult to access after a big storm.
While we like this size to get through a few days without power, how large a generator you need comes down to what you want to run and for how long. Electric Generators Direct has a useful worksheet to help you determine whether the Westinghouse iGen5000DFc provides enough power for your needs. Also, don’t forget that you’ll need a high quality extension cord in order to get all of that generated power into your home.
Emergency weather radio
Top pick
Relying on cell phone service in any sort of disasters can have deadly consequences. The radio network was built to withstand disasters. A good emergency weather radio can tune in to AM/FM and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration channels (collectively known as the “weather band”) to keep you informed as well as entertained if the power goes out. The Midland ER310 offers better reception, a brighter flashlight, and more-effective charging options than other radios we tested, including the ability to charge from dead through solar power or hand-cranking. It can receive NOAA extreme-weather alerts, providing notifications that are both loud and readily visible so you won’t miss any warnings.
The ER310’s convenient size makes it comfortable to carry. It was also one of the few radios we tested that lived up to their crank-generating claims: We found that just one minute of cranking produced 10 minutes of radio time or a few minutes of flashlight use. Plus, its durable body can stand up to heavy rain or a drop onto a hard surface.
If there’s an emergency alert in your area, the ER310’s built-in NOAA audible alarm and flashing display will make sure you notice. When the siren sounds and the lights begin blaring—it can be quite clamorous—you can press any button to switch the radio to your preferred (preprogrammed) NOAA weather channel to get the news.
If you fail to turn on the radio before a minute goes by, the weather memory indicator flashes every five seconds to let you know that an alert has been issued, and it continues to do so until you press any button to turn the notice off. So if you have hearing loss, or if you’re out of the house when the alarm goes off, you can still find out if some ugly conditions are headed your way.
The flashlight also has an SOS blinking pattern, and the radio has a button that sets off a high-pitched tone—beyond the range of human hearing—to attract the attention of rescue dogs if you’re really in distress.
Surge protector
Top pick
A surge protector won’t keep anything powered in a blackout, but it will protect your electronics when the grid blinks on and off, whether the effect lasts for a few seconds or a few days. When your power flickers, there’s a decent chance that the voltage—normally around 110 volts—is dropping or surging, and that can degrade or seriously damage your electronics. We tested surge protectors by sending a 5,000 V spike through them and measuring how much of that extra voltage got through to the other side, where your TV, computer, or stereo system would be plugged in.
In our guide, we recommend the Tripp Lite 12-Outlet Surge Protector for home offices and media centers because it proved to have some of the best and most trustworthy surge protection available at a reasonable price. All but the highest-end surge protectors wear out eventually, but unlike many bargain options that will power your gear unprotected, this Tripp Lite model will shut down completely when the protection is gone so you never put your electronics at risk. Four of the 12 outlets are generously spaced to accommodate large power bricks, and the 8-foot cord is long enough to work with setups that don’t have an outlet in the perfect spot.
Uninterruptible power supply
Top pick
At home, you have two common ways to take advantage of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for short-term backup power. A UPS is basically a surge protector with a battery backup built in, and one can keep a computer workstation—including a desktop, a monitor, external hard drives and more—going for a few minutes when the power cuts off so that you can safely save your work and shut everything down. Or it can power a smaller load, such as a modem and a router, for an hour or more to keep your Internet or digital phone service online during a brief blackout. Following our 2021 testing, the CyberPower CP900AVR is our pick because it provides enough power output and battery capacity to back up a few small electronics (such as a modem, router, PC, external hard drive, or game server) during a blackout lasting up to four hours. The CyberPower is also reasonably affordable compared with the competition.
USB battery pack for phones and tablets
Top pick
We recommend the Belkin Boost Charge Plus 10K as a reliable option for charging devices like phones and tablets during an outage. In addition to a USB-A output port, it has a USB-C Power Delivery port that enables charging (both input and output) up to 18.8 watts—nearly twice as much power as most models we’ve found with built-in cables. This means less time waiting around for your phone, and the power bank itself, to fully charge. About the size and shape of a bar of soap, the Belkin Boost Charge Plus 10K has a smooth yet grippy texture and easily stows in a pocket or a pouch. Be sure to keep it fully charged at all times so it’s ready for use when you need it.
USB battery pack for laptops
Top pick
If an outage happens during a workday, the Mophie Powerstation Pro AC offers more than 100 W of power output and enough capacity to bring a dead MacBook Air battery up to 90% charged—even during heavy use with the screen brightness turned up. It has a variety of output ports, including two USB-C Power Delivery (PD) ports, one USB-A ports, and an AC outlet.
Our guide to the best portable laptop chargers also recommends the ChargeTech Portable Power Outlet 27K 4.0, and as of this writing, it’s about half the cost. The ChargeTech has the same port options as the Anker and even has a higher capacity (it was able to charge our test laptop 1.2 times), but it’s heavier than the Anker and not as sturdily built.
Portable power station
Top pick
A portable power station like the EcoFlow River 2 Pro is a great option if you want to use your power source indoors—where the fumes of a gas generator are dangerous—and you need more power than a USB battery pack can provide. The EcoFlow River 2 Pro is light enough for the average adult to lift and carry safely, yet it managed to run even the most power-hungry appliances in our tests, so it’s suitable for keeping most devices, such as a laptop, a CPAP machine, or even a small refrigerator running all day (or all night) long. We love its easy-to-read screen, which shows input/output wattage and how much power remains in reserve. Plus, it has more output ports—four AC, three USB-A, and a USB-C—than almost any other portable power station we’ve tested.
Power inverter
Top pick
In a true emergency, energy efficiency won’t be your number one concern, and that’s when a small inverter that plugs into your car’s 12 V outlet is a compact, clever option for backup power. The Bestek 300W MRI3011J2 Power Inverter turns the round, 12 V outlet in your car into two standard AC outlets capable of providing a total of 300 watts of power—so long as your car is running. Using your car’s engine like this isn’t fuel efficient in the slightest, but it could give you the chance to charge up anything you need—phones, laptops, a radio, or even a power station or battery packs to take inside—to make it through an extended power outage without a generator. Unlike our picks for power stations and generators, though, small and inexpensive inverters like this don’t put out pure sine wave power. That just means you shouldn’t run sensitive electronics (such as medical devices or AV equipment) or things with a motor (such as a fan) directly on the inverter.
Inflatable solar lantern
Top pick
Our readers have recommended that we review inflatable solar-powered lanterns, a category of products meant to illuminate surroundings and prevent unexpected encounters in the dark. These floating lights are equipped with a solar panel and a cable with which you can charge your phone.
We tested two models of these lanterns, the LuminAID Titan 2-in-1 Power Lantern and MPowerd Luci Base Light. We tossed them in our bathtub, charged them up in the sun, then turned them on to see how long it took to run out their batteries. We then froze them overnight and turned them on again the next day.
The LuminAid Titan came out on top, but just barely. The MPowerd Luci has a warm yellow light, and it’s slightly brighter than the Titan. Seungah Jeong, the president and CEO of MPowerd, said that children love hugging their balloon-like Luci. But ultimately the Titan is easier to inflate, runs for longer, and has more varied brightness settings. You open it with a satisfying twist and can throw it directly in the water. This lantern has buttons that are easier to operate, with the addition of a very useful light that comes on when the solar panel is charging. The Titan also needed less time to reach a full battery than the Luci. LuminAID has donated over 250,000 lights to either directly or through their nonprofit partners, according to the company website.
LED lantern
Top pick
Flashlights and headlamps have their places in an outage (and we’ll get to them next), but to get area lighting for things like cooking, eating, or just whiling away time with a board game, we recommend the UST 60-Day Duro Lantern. This is the brightest lantern we’ve tested and we like that it has a handle, so we could hang it off a hook or easily carry it around during an outage. It requires six D batteries, which is a bit of a drag, but, at the lowest setting, it can last for an astonishing 60 days. Knowing this extended runtime, we felt comfortable keeping it going on the kitchen counter at the low setting and then only bumping up to the higher settings for specific tasks that needed more light. UST also offers the smaller 30-Day Duro. It’s not as bright and it has a shorter battery life, but it only requires three D batteries. Some folks use candles for area lighting during a blackout, but both FEMA and the Red Cross recommend battery-powered lighting over candles in a power outage due to fire concerns (PDF).
Flashlight
Top pick
Lanterns are great for area lighting, but they don’t have the portability or the concentrated beam of a flashlight. Our favorite flashlight is the ThruNite Archer 2A C, and during a recent outage, senior staff writer Doug Mahoney used it to check his crawl space, scan the roof for fallen branches, get around the house, and, because the lowest setting can run for 15 days, he hung it in the bathroom overnight as a night light for his kids. The Archer 2A C is powered by the included single rechargeable battery or two AA batteries and at the highest setting we were able to light up a tree 500 feet away.
Like many of the best flashlights, the Archer 2A C has a two-button interface that makes it easy to toggle through the brightness settings one-handed. It also shares a number of other features found on more-expensive lights: It doesn’t roll on a flat surface, it stands upright on its front end, it can survive a 1-meter drop or full immersion in water, and it has a momentary-on feature that turns the light on and off with a half-press of the rear button. Since this flashlight is fairly small and only comes in black and gray, consider affixing a bright piece of gaffer tape to the side to find it quickly if it’s stored in a crowded junk drawer.
Headlamp
Budget pick
When you need to move around in the dark, a flashlight or lantern will get the job done, but a headlamp will let you use two hands, so even if it’s dark, you can haul in firewood, fiddle with the generator, or pull a branch off the driveway. We like the Black Diamond Astro 300 because it’s simple to use and comes with a relatively low price tag. It’s not as bright as some, but the single-switch interface is easy to understand, especially during the stressful early stages of an outage when you’re trying to fully access the situation.
Other headlamps, like the brighter (and more expensive) Black Diamond Spot 400, have much more of a learning curve to fully grasp the interface. The Spot is a better option for a dedicated hiker or someone who regularly uses a headlamp, but we think the occasional user is better off with the Astro 300. Plus, at less than $20, the Astro 300 is much more budget-friendly, especially if it’s going to spend the majority of its time buried in the kitchen junk drawer.
Water container
Top pick
Out of the four water collapsible water containers we tested, the Wolverine Tuff Bottle 20L Container was, as the name suggests, the toughest. It was also the easiest to fill and maneuver. With water, the bag weighs about 40 pounds, which was the maximum amount we could carry easily with one hand. A different water container we tested busted open when we knocked it off a six-foot-high shelf, but the Wolverine Tuff Bottle has two layers of ultraviolet-resistant plastic that kept the sloshing water secure. We froze the container over the weekend and it didn’t leak when we filled it back up again. My experience is backed up by the ASTM International, a standards organization that did similar drop tests with varying heights and liquids (including antifreeze).
Wolverine Tuff is a family business that started out making packaging for medical supplies, so they have some experience in containing high-stakes solvents, according to director of operations Reilly Wilkes. The Wolverine Tuff Bottle on Amazon comes with a red spout, but you can purchase other accessories—including a spout that fits a Sawyer water filter—on the Wolverine Tuff website. The company has collaborated with many charitable organizations in order to deliver 400,000 gallons of clean drinking water.
One downside to the Wolverine Tuff container: we noticed the water had a slight plastic aftertaste even after we washed the container out a few times. The WaterStorageCube Collapsible Water Container Bag retained less eau en plastique and is cheaper, although it has a shorter warranty, does not come with spigot, and lacks the transparent standards testing of the Wolverine Tuff container.
Water is usually the first item that FEMA brings to a storm-damaged area, according to Grant Brown, director of recreation and cultural affairs in Gulf Shores, Alabama. But water is also what you’ll miss the most if you don’t have it. Officials announce hurricane warnings at least 36 hours before the onset of the storm, which means you have time to store water for both drinking and other household activities like cleaning and flushing the toilet. In an emergency, experts recommend having at least one gallon of water per person per day for a minimum of three days. “There’s an old adage: The first 72 is on you,” says Brown, referring to the initial 72 hours after a storm.
While our water container recommendation is convenient to have around, you don’t need a specific tool in order to retain liquids. For “gray water,” which you can clean and flush the toilet with but not drink, you can close the drains on your tubs and sinks as you fill them up. One of our sources tipped us off to the existence of the WaterBOB, a plastic container that fits inside your tub, but we have not yet tested it.
You can fill up any water bottles you might have lying around with drinking water. Put them in your refrigerator and freezer (after checking that the materials are freeze-proof). Not only will this keep the water itself cool, the high specific heat capacity of water compared to air means that the inside of your fridge or freezer will warm up more slowly if the power goes out. Hurricanes usually happen in warm locales in the summer and fall. Even if the electricity stays running, you won’t regret having a cold drink as you head outside for cleanup duty.
Board game
Top pick
You need something to do while you charge your phone during a blackout. Switch on your lantern and gather your group around Dixit, an interactive picture card game that’s a snap to learn and play for both kids and adults.
As in Apples to Apples or other family-friendly games, the rules are simple and the stakes are low. One player is the storyteller and describes a card in their hand using a single word or phrase; the other players choose their best-matching card to submit secretly. All the submitted cards are then shuffled and revealed, and players vote on the best card that fits the prompt. Players get points for correctly guessing the storyteller’s card or for having other players guess their card. The game works for three to six players, and rounds take about 30 minutes. So if you or anyone in your group is anxious about when the power will come back on, Dixit can be an enjoyable distraction.
If you want some more distraction options or if Dixit doesn’t sound intense enough for you, we have a whole host of games we love (including Wingspan and Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, both great for solo players), entries for new board gamers, and also games just for two-players, in case you’re stuck with just your partner instead of a whole group.
What to know about large solar power and battery backup systems
Solar power combined with battery storage is rapidly becoming a mainstream disaster-preparedness choice, and Wirecutter senior staff editor Tim Heffernan spoke to more than a dozen installers, manufacturers, and industry experts for our guide on how to pick a solar panel and battery backup system. He discovered that there are too many variables for us to recommend a particular manufacturer or system, or that you should even definitely invest. But his guide does identify the key entry points to consider when starting your research.
This article was edited by Joshua Lyon and Harry Sawyers.
The tools
- Portable generator
- Emergency weather radio
- Surge protector
- Uninterruptible power supply
- USB battery pack for phones and tablets
- USB battery pack for laptops
- Portable power station
- Power inverter
- Inflatable solar lantern
- LED lantern
- Flashlight
- Headlamp
- Water container
- Board game
- What to know about large solar power and battery backup systems
Portable generator
Top pick
A portable generator is a moderate investment, but if you regularly experience multi-day outages, it’s one worth making. The Westinghouse iGen5000DFc offers 3,900 running watts, enough to keep the essentials going, including most small appliances, though it likely won’t have enough power to support large-draw items like a whole-house AC or a clothes dryer.
The Westinghouse iGen5000DFc meets all of our must-have criteria—it has a closed frame for quieter operation, it’s an inverter model which provides cleaner power to protect sensitive electronics, and it has a CO detector which will automatically shut off the machine if it detects dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. This model also has a remote start feature, which we don’t often see in other models at this price and wattage range. We also like its dual-fuel capabilities, meaning it can run on either gas or propane—a nice feature when fuel can become difficult to access after a big storm.
While we like this size to get through a few days without power, how large a generator you need comes down to what you want to run and for how long. Electric Generators Direct has a useful worksheet to help you determine whether the Westinghouse iGen5000DFc provides enough power for your needs. Also, don’t forget that you’ll need a high quality extension cord in order to get all of that generated power into your home.
Emergency weather radio
Top pick
Relying on cell phone service in any sort of disasters can have deadly consequences. The radio network was built to withstand disasters. A good emergency weather radio can tune in to AM/FM and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration channels (collectively known as the “weather band”) to keep you informed as well as entertained if the power goes out. The Midland ER310 offers better reception, a brighter flashlight, and more-effective charging options than other radios we tested, including the ability to charge from dead through solar power or hand-cranking. It can receive NOAA extreme-weather alerts, providing notifications that are both loud and readily visible so you won’t miss any warnings.
The ER310’s convenient size makes it comfortable to carry. It was also one of the few radios we tested that lived up to their crank-generating claims: We found that just one minute of cranking produced 10 minutes of radio time or a few minutes of flashlight use. Plus, its durable body can stand up to heavy rain or a drop onto a hard surface.
If there’s an emergency alert in your area, the ER310’s built-in NOAA audible alarm and flashing display will make sure you notice. When the siren sounds and the lights begin blaring—it can be quite clamorous—you can press any button to switch the radio to your preferred (preprogrammed) NOAA weather channel to get the news.
If you fail to turn on the radio before a minute goes by, the weather memory indicator flashes every five seconds to let you know that an alert has been issued, and it continues to do so until you press any button to turn the notice off. So if you have hearing loss, or if you’re out of the house when the alarm goes off, you can still find out if some ugly conditions are headed your way.
The flashlight also has an SOS blinking pattern, and the radio has a button that sets off a high-pitched tone—beyond the range of human hearing—to attract the attention of rescue dogs if you’re really in distress.
Surge protector
Top pick
A surge protector won’t keep anything powered in a blackout, but it will protect your electronics when the grid blinks on and off, whether the effect lasts for a few seconds or a few days. When your power flickers, there’s a decent chance that the voltage—normally around 110 volts—is dropping or surging, and that can degrade or seriously damage your electronics. We tested surge protectors by sending a 5,000 V spike through them and measuring how much of that extra voltage got through to the other side, where your TV, computer, or stereo system would be plugged in.
In our guide, we recommend the Tripp Lite 12-Outlet Surge Protector for home offices and media centers because it proved to have some of the best and most trustworthy surge protection available at a reasonable price. All but the highest-end surge protectors wear out eventually, but unlike many bargain options that will power your gear unprotected, this Tripp Lite model will shut down completely when the protection is gone so you never put your electronics at risk. Four of the 12 outlets are generously spaced to accommodate large power bricks, and the 8-foot cord is long enough to work with setups that don’t have an outlet in the perfect spot.
Uninterruptible power supply
Top pick
At home, you have two common ways to take advantage of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for short-term backup power. A UPS is basically a surge protector with a battery backup built in, and one can keep a computer workstation—including a desktop, a monitor, external hard drives and more—going for a few minutes when the power cuts off so that you can safely save your work and shut everything down. Or it can power a smaller load, such as a modem and a router, for an hour or more to keep your Internet or digital phone service online during a brief blackout. Following our 2021 testing, the CyberPower CP900AVR is our pick because it provides enough power output and battery capacity to back up a few small electronics (such as a modem, router, PC, external hard drive, or game server) during a blackout lasting up to four hours. The CyberPower is also reasonably affordable compared with the competition.
USB battery pack for phones and tablets
Top pick
We recommend the Belkin Boost Charge Plus 10K as a reliable option for charging devices like phones and tablets during an outage. In addition to a USB-A output port, it has a USB-C Power Delivery port that enables charging (both input and output) up to 18.8 watts—nearly twice as much power as most models we’ve found with built-in cables. This means less time waiting around for your phone, and the power bank itself, to fully charge. About the size and shape of a bar of soap, the Belkin Boost Charge Plus 10K has a smooth yet grippy texture and easily stows in a pocket or a pouch. Be sure to keep it fully charged at all times so it’s ready for use when you need it.
USB battery pack for laptops
Top pick
If an outage happens during a workday, the Mophie Powerstation Pro AC offers more than 100 W of power output and enough capacity to bring a dead MacBook Air battery up to 90% charged—even during heavy use with the screen brightness turned up. It has a variety of output ports, including two USB-C Power Delivery (PD) ports, one USB-A ports, and an AC outlet.
Our guide to the best portable laptop chargers also recommends the ChargeTech Portable Power Outlet 27K 4.0, and as of this writing, it’s about half the cost. The ChargeTech has the same port options as the Anker and even has a higher capacity (it was able to charge our test laptop 1.2 times), but it’s heavier than the Anker and not as sturdily built.
Portable power station
Top pick
A portable power station like the EcoFlow River 2 Pro is a great option if you want to use your power source indoors—where the fumes of a gas generator are dangerous—and you need more power than a USB battery pack can provide. The EcoFlow River 2 Pro is light enough for the average adult to lift and carry safely, yet it managed to run even the most power-hungry appliances in our tests, so it’s suitable for keeping most devices, such as a laptop, a CPAP machine, or even a small refrigerator running all day (or all night) long. We love its easy-to-read screen, which shows input/output wattage and how much power remains in reserve. Plus, it has more output ports—four AC, three USB-A, and a USB-C—than almost any other portable power station we’ve tested.
Power inverter
Top pick
In a true emergency, energy efficiency won’t be your number one concern, and that’s when a small inverter that plugs into your car’s 12 V outlet is a compact, clever option for backup power. The Bestek 300W MRI3011J2 Power Inverter turns the round, 12 V outlet in your car into two standard AC outlets capable of providing a total of 300 watts of power—so long as your car is running. Using your car’s engine like this isn’t fuel efficient in the slightest, but it could give you the chance to charge up anything you need—phones, laptops, a radio, or even a power station or battery packs to take inside—to make it through an extended power outage without a generator. Unlike our picks for power stations and generators, though, small and inexpensive inverters like this don’t put out pure sine wave power. That just means you shouldn’t run sensitive electronics (such as medical devices or AV equipment) or things with a motor (such as a fan) directly on the inverter.
Inflatable solar lantern
Top pick
Our readers have recommended that we review inflatable solar-powered lanterns, a category of products meant to illuminate surroundings and prevent unexpected encounters in the dark. These floating lights are equipped with a solar panel and a cable with which you can charge your phone.
We tested two models of these lanterns, the LuminAID Titan 2-in-1 Power Lantern and MPowerd Luci Base Light. We tossed them in our bathtub, charged them up in the sun, then turned them on to see how long it took to run out their batteries. We then froze them overnight and turned them on again the next day.
The LuminAid Titan came out on top, but just barely. The MPowerd Luci has a warm yellow light, and it’s slightly brighter than the Titan. Seungah Jeong, the president and CEO of MPowerd, said that children love hugging their balloon-like Luci. But ultimately the Titan is easier to inflate, runs for longer, and has more varied brightness settings. You open it with a satisfying twist and can throw it directly in the water. This lantern has buttons that are easier to operate, with the addition of a very useful light that comes on when the solar panel is charging. The Titan also needed less time to reach a full battery than the Luci. LuminAID has donated over 250,000 lights to either directly or through their nonprofit partners, according to the company website.
LED lantern
Top pick
Flashlights and headlamps have their places in an outage (and we’ll get to them next), but to get area lighting for things like cooking, eating, or just whiling away time with a board game, we recommend the UST 60-Day Duro Lantern. This is the brightest lantern we’ve tested and we like that it has a handle, so we could hang it off a hook or easily carry it around during an outage. It requires six D batteries, which is a bit of a drag, but, at the lowest setting, it can last for an astonishing 60 days. Knowing this extended runtime, we felt comfortable keeping it going on the kitchen counter at the low setting and then only bumping up to the higher settings for specific tasks that needed more light. UST also offers the smaller 30-Day Duro. It’s not as bright and it has a shorter battery life, but it only requires three D batteries. Some folks use candles for area lighting during a blackout, but both FEMA and the Red Cross recommend battery-powered lighting over candles in a power outage due to fire concerns (PDF).
Flashlight
Top pick
Lanterns are great for area lighting, but they don’t have the portability or the concentrated beam of a flashlight. Our favorite flashlight is the ThruNite Archer 2A C, and during a recent outage, senior staff writer Doug Mahoney used it to check his crawl space, scan the roof for fallen branches, get around the house, and, because the lowest setting can run for 15 days, he hung it in the bathroom overnight as a night light for his kids. The Archer 2A C is powered by the included single rechargeable battery or two AA batteries and at the highest setting we were able to light up a tree 500 feet away.
Like many of the best flashlights, the Archer 2A C has a two-button interface that makes it easy to toggle through the brightness settings one-handed. It also shares a number of other features found on more-expensive lights: It doesn’t roll on a flat surface, it stands upright on its front end, it can survive a 1-meter drop or full immersion in water, and it has a momentary-on feature that turns the light on and off with a half-press of the rear button. Since this flashlight is fairly small and only comes in black and gray, consider affixing a bright piece of gaffer tape to the side to find it quickly if it’s stored in a crowded junk drawer.
Headlamp
Budget pick
When you need to move around in the dark, a flashlight or lantern will get the job done, but a headlamp will let you use two hands, so even if it’s dark, you can haul in firewood, fiddle with the generator, or pull a branch off the driveway. We like the Black Diamond Astro 300 because it’s simple to use and comes with a relatively low price tag. It’s not as bright as some, but the single-switch interface is easy to understand, especially during the stressful early stages of an outage when you’re trying to fully access the situation.
Other headlamps, like the brighter (and more expensive) Black Diamond Spot 400, have much more of a learning curve to fully grasp the interface. The Spot is a better option for a dedicated hiker or someone who regularly uses a headlamp, but we think the occasional user is better off with the Astro 300. Plus, at less than $20, the Astro 300 is much more budget-friendly, especially if it’s going to spend the majority of its time buried in the kitchen junk drawer.
Water container
Top pick
Out of the four water collapsible water containers we tested, the Wolverine Tuff Bottle 20L Container was, as the name suggests, the toughest. It was also the easiest to fill and maneuver. With water, the bag weighs about 40 pounds, which was the maximum amount we could carry easily with one hand. A different water container we tested busted open when we knocked it off a six-foot-high shelf, but the Wolverine Tuff Bottle has two layers of ultraviolet-resistant plastic that kept the sloshing water secure. We froze the container over the weekend and it didn’t leak when we filled it back up again. My experience is backed up by the ASTM International, a standards organization that did similar drop tests with varying heights and liquids (including antifreeze).
Wolverine Tuff is a family business that started out making packaging for medical supplies, so they have some experience in containing high-stakes solvents, according to director of operations Reilly Wilkes. The Wolverine Tuff Bottle on Amazon comes with a red spout, but you can purchase other accessories—including a spout that fits a Sawyer water filter—on the Wolverine Tuff website. The company has collaborated with many charitable organizations in order to deliver 400,000 gallons of clean drinking water.
One downside to the Wolverine Tuff container: we noticed the water had a slight plastic aftertaste even after we washed the container out a few times. The WaterStorageCube Collapsible Water Container Bag retained less eau en plastique and is cheaper, although it has a shorter warranty, does not come with spigot, and lacks the transparent standards testing of the Wolverine Tuff container.
Water is usually the first item that FEMA brings to a storm-damaged area, according to Grant Brown, director of recreation and cultural affairs in Gulf Shores, Alabama. But water is also what you’ll miss the most if you don’t have it. Officials announce hurricane warnings at least 36 hours before the onset of the storm, which means you have time to store water for both drinking and other household activities like cleaning and flushing the toilet. In an emergency, experts recommend having at least one gallon of water per person per day for a minimum of three days. “There’s an old adage: The first 72 is on you,” says Brown, referring to the initial 72 hours after a storm.
While our water container recommendation is convenient to have around, you don’t need a specific tool in order to retain liquids. For “gray water,” which you can clean and flush the toilet with but not drink, you can close the drains on your tubs and sinks as you fill them up. One of our sources tipped us off to the existence of the WaterBOB, a plastic container that fits inside your tub, but we have not yet tested it.
You can fill up any water bottles you might have lying around with drinking water. Put them in your refrigerator and freezer (after checking that the materials are freeze-proof). Not only will this keep the water itself cool, the high specific heat capacity of water compared to air means that the inside of your fridge or freezer will warm up more slowly if the power goes out. Hurricanes usually happen in warm locales in the summer and fall. Even if the electricity stays running, you won’t regret having a cold drink as you head outside for cleanup duty.
Board game
Top pick
You need something to do while you charge your phone during a blackout. Switch on your lantern and gather your group around Dixit, an interactive picture card game that’s a snap to learn and play for both kids and adults.
As in Apples to Apples or other family-friendly games, the rules are simple and the stakes are low. One player is the storyteller and describes a card in their hand using a single word or phrase; the other players choose their best-matching card to submit secretly. All the submitted cards are then shuffled and revealed, and players vote on the best card that fits the prompt. Players get points for correctly guessing the storyteller’s card or for having other players guess their card. The game works for three to six players, and rounds take about 30 minutes. So if you or anyone in your group is anxious about when the power will come back on, Dixit can be an enjoyable distraction.
If you want some more distraction options or if Dixit doesn’t sound intense enough for you, we have a whole host of games we love (including Wingspan and Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, both great for solo players), entries for new board gamers, and also games just for two-players, in case you’re stuck with just your partner instead of a whole group.
What to know about large solar power and battery backup systems
Solar power combined with battery storage is rapidly becoming a mainstream disaster-preparedness choice, and Wirecutter senior staff editor Tim Heffernan spoke to more than a dozen installers, manufacturers, and industry experts for our guide on how to pick a solar panel and battery backup system. He discovered that there are too many variables for us to recommend a particular manufacturer or system, or that you should even definitely invest. But his guide does identify the key entry points to consider when starting your research.
This article was edited by Joshua Lyon and Harry Sawyers.
