Stay safe, calm and in control during a power cut and other modern emergencies with What to Do When the Lights Go Out. With thanks to Leticia for her review.
Reviewed as a purchased read, What To Do When The Lights Go Out is a practical guide on being “prepared when the modern world goes wrong”. Prompted from the launch of the Government’s Be Ready campaign, I sought to cut through the noise and scaremongering across the media, and turned to our favourite resource – a book!
For anyone practically minded, there isn’t necessarily any groundbreaking surprises, but it does collate a lot of handy information together – and as a book, that information will always remain accessible in an outage! The three sections of Before, When and After provide a useful context of addressing the shorter-term steps and considering longer term-solutions.
It’s an easy read, visually engaging, and the sections easily allow dipping in and out as you may want, but I would recommend reading all for the constructive information throughout. The advice is practical and realistic to different circumstances, while there is a slight lean towards the US on statistics, it’s not detrimental to the message, and the recommendations are not made with a prepper stereotype.
Something I didn’t expect was the sections on mental preparation and resilience, “mindset before materials”. When the world is behaving as it is and there’s an increasing message to be prepared, the act of seeking sensible information contributes to that. Will I stop what’s going on? Not at all, but do I feel a little more in control in the act of reading the book and taking some action, yes, and that in itself is a small step in staying mentally healthier and perhaps managing any future disruption.
About the Book
Stay safe, calm and in control during a power cut and other modern emergencies with What to Do When the Lights Go Out.
Unlike traditional survivalist manuals that dwell on extreme scenarios, this reassuring guide is firmly rooted in real life. It teaches you how to prepare sensibly and build genuine self‑sufficiency in a world where outages, shortages and unexpected interruptions are increasingly common.
For example, you’ll learn how to:
- Take charge in the first five minutes, assess the situation and keep your household safe.
- Light your space safely and creatively with clever DIY hacks.
- Stay warm without power.
- Keep cool in a heatwave.
- Cook without electricity, from simple no‑cook meals to outdoor and campfire cooking.
- Manage food and water supplies, including collecting, filtering and purifying water.
- Maintain hygiene with limited or no running water.
- Support children, seniors, pets and vulnerable neighbours.
- Decide when to stay put and when to leave, using the easy-to-follow REDOUT decision framework.
- Assemble a realistic, no‑nonsense bug‑out bag filled with what people truly need in an emergency.
Practical, reassuring and refreshingly free of doom‑and‑gloom thinking, What to Do When the Lights Go Out helps you build everyday resilience so you can face uncertainty with confidence.
Prepare now and turn the next blackout into something you can handle with ease.
About The Author
NIC COMPTON is the author of How to Survive a Lightning Strike, published by Ivy Press (aka Life Skills, Chartwell in North America). He is writer/photographer specialising in sailing – but with a keen interest in environmental issues. He has written 15 books and recently completed an MA in Global Political Economy at Sussex University, and co-wrote two books about economics. He currently lives by the River Dart in Devon, UK, from where he sails a Romilly 22 called Ramona.
Purchase the Book
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