By Christal Harte

It’s still National Preparedness Month, so let’s play a little Choose Your Own Adventure.

Today’s challenge: Could you make it 72 hours without power?

To build our adventure, I posed a few questions to my family group chat to see how they would handle three days without electricity.

Their answers ranged from practical to creative and, in one case, involved a private jet.

You’ll hear from them along the way.

But first, imagine this:

No lights.

No Wi-Fi.

No refrigerator humming in the background.

Your phone is at 37%, and that episode of The Bear you planned to watch will have to wait.

The lights flicker.

Everything goes quiet.

Your 72 hours begin now.

The power just went out. What do you grab first?

A. Your phone.

Obviously. You need to find out what happened, check on family and friends, and protect that remaining 37% battery like it’s the last electricity on Earth.

B. Flashlights and batteries.

Congratulations. Dare I say you have become the responsible person in the disaster movie.

C. Water and nonperishable food.

You’re already thinking ahead.

D. The generator.

If you have one, you’re deciding what actually needs power. And remember: generators should only be used outdoors and safely away from your home.

I asked my family a similar question:

How would you survive 72 hours without electricity?

The answers started rolling in.

Water. Food. Flashlights. Batteries. Portable chargers. Blankets. Medications. Games. Books.

Then Chantal responded: “I’m getting on a private jet and going somewhere with power.”

Fair enough.

Adventure over.

Except, as we went back and forth about taking this seriously and practically, Chantal had really thought about this.

Night falls. How are you getting through it?

The house is dark. The Wi-Fi is gone. If you have children, someone has probably already asked, “When is the power coming back?” approximately 47 times.

What’s your move?

A. Get everyone comfortable.

Vanessa is ready with blankets, layered clothing, baby essentials, medications and whatever else everyone needs.

B. Break out the games.

Euphemia is going old-school with entertainment that doesn’t require Wi-Fi, electricity or a charger.

C. Grab a book.

Gloria has accepted the situation and is probably several chapters ahead of the rest of us.

D. Go to sleep.

Cass has concluded that the most efficient way to get through several hours without electricity is to be unconscious for them.

Depending on how long the outage lasts, rejuvenating oneself through sleep is a great way to pass the time.

Mid chat however Gloria raises an important question:

What season are we talking about?

Seventy-two hours without electricity during extreme summer heat is a very different experience from 72 hours after a winter storm.

The same is true depending on where you live and who is in your household. Young children, older adults, pets and anyone who relies on medication or medical equipment can change what “prepared” looks like pretty quickly.

Your phone hits 8%. What do you do?

George said he could manage without plenty of things, but losing his phone and computer would be difficult because they’re also his connection to other people.

During an outage, that matters.

You may be checking on family, looking for emergency information or trying to find out when power is expected to return.

Suddenly, that little red battery icon becomes considerably more concerning than usual.

What’s your move?

A. Keep scrolling and hope for the best.

B. Switch to low-power mode and start rationing your battery.

C. Reach for the portable power bank you remembered to charge.

D. Casually produce a solar charger and become everyone’s new favorite relative.

Portable chargers came up several times in our family conversation.

Enter Chantal, who continues her chatter and says we should meet at a central location. A place to check in and make sure we are alright and together. Have a family meeting place.

She’s an 80’s baby who remembers guidelines given before she had a cell phone.

She knows that phones need power. Networks can become congested. Messages may not go through. And sometimes the people in your household aren’t together when the power goes out. If you couldn’t call or text, would everyone know where to go or how to reconnect?

Or is the entire family emergency plan currently stored inside one person’s head?

Welcome to Day Two. How prepared are you really?

At this point, the adventure is considerably less adventurous. The novelty has worn off.

Someone is asking about the refrigerator. Your battery supply is looking different than it did yesterday. And all those little things you depend on without thinking about them are suddenly very noticeable. Which preparedness category sounds most like your household?

A. “We can get through today.”

You have some water, food, flashlights and basic supplies. You’re not starting from scratch, but you may be discovering a few gaps.

B. “We have an emergency kit.”

Food, water, medications, batteries, chargers and other essentials are organized and reasonably easy to find.

C. “We have supplies and a plan.”

People know where things are, how to use them and what to do if the household gets separated.

And then there’s:

D. “Please consult Chantal.”

Remember Private-Jet Chantal?

While the rest of us were thinking about flashlights, bottled water and protein bars, Chantal was apparently preparing for an entirely different reality her checklist included:

• Stored water.
• Backup power.
• Solar power.
• A hand-crank radio.
• A compass.
• Water filtration.
• Rice and lentils.

She plans on ensuring her nieces know how to read maps and find safe water.

I asked about making it through a 72-hour power outage.

Chantal prepared for civilization to reboot.

Excessive? Perhaps. However, she also made one of the better points to come out of our family discussion:

Having supplies is only part of being prepared. You also need to know what to do with them.

A flashlight isn’t very useful if nobody can find it.

A family plan doesn’t help much if only one person knows it.

And emergency supplies are only useful if they actually account for the people—and animals—living in your home.

Do you have necessary medications?

Supplies for babies or older adults?

Pet food?

Batteries that aren’t several years old?

And then there’s water.

The Red Cross recommends having one gallon of water per person, per day. For a stay-at-home emergency supply, the recommendation is enough water for two weeks.

Do that math for your household and suddenly those bottles at the back of the pantry may not look like quite so much.

The refrigerator has been without power for hours. What do you do?

A. Open it every 15 minutes to see if everything still feels cold.

B. Keep the doors closed as much as possible.

C. Start deciding which foods you would use first.

D. Realize you have absolutely no idea how long food stays safe without power.

If you picked B, you’re on the right track.

The natural temptation is to keep opening the refrigerator to check on things. Resist that temptation. Keeping refrigerator and freezer doors closed helps them stay cold longer. An unopened refrigerator can keep food cold for about four hours. A full freezer can maintain its temperature for about 48 hours; a half-full freezer, about 24.

Sometimes preparedness isn’t about buying another piece of equipment.

Sometimes it’s knowing what not to do.

Hour 72: The lights come back on. How did you do?

The refrigerator hums.

A light flickers on.

Someone celebrates because the Wi-Fi has returned.

You made it.

Now comes the useful part:

What did those three days reveal?

A. “We’re ready.”

Look at you. Chantal would be proud.

B. “We need a few things.”

Maybe more water, fresh batteries or another portable charger.

C. “We have supplies. Finding them is another matter.”

Three flashlights are considerably less useful when nobody knows where they are.

D. “Our entire emergency plan is ‘everybody call Mom.’”

That counts as a discovery. The point of this little adventure isn’t to prepare for every disaster imaginable or turn your basement into Chantal’s command center. It’s to identify the handful of things that would make an unexpected outage easier and safer for your household.

Know where your emergency supplies are. Keep enough water and basic food on hand. Think about medications, children, older adults and pets. Keep a portable charger charged. Decide how your family would reconnect if calling and texting weren’t an option. None of that requires preparing for the end of the world. It just requires doing a little thinking before the lights go out.

You don’t have to become Chantal. You just want your plan to be slightly more sophisticated than calling mom or trying to google it.

One Last Adventure: The Martian

If all this talk about stretching limited supplies has you looking for a movie night — because hey, what is a writing piece from me without a movie recommendation — add The Martian to your list.

Without giving too much away, astronaut Mark Watney finds himself facing the ultimate preparedness challenge: limited food, limited supplies, no quick rescue and a very long distance to the nearest grocery store. His circumstances are, hopefully, nothing like yours.

But the questions are familiar:

• What do I have?
• What do I need?
• How long will it last?
• And what happens if Plan A doesn’t work?

Consider it preparedness homework. A yummy snack of your choice is permitted.

And remember, choose wisely as your next adventure may not give you advance notice.