This page is not about preparing. It is about the situation you are in right now. Find your scenario below. The page works without an internet connection once you have visited it.
If life or health is at risk: call 110 (fire), 112 (police) or 113 (ambulance). The rest of this page is advice for situations that are not an immediate emergency.
The power is out
Most power cuts last less than two hours. Act as if it will be short, but prepare for it to be long.
First hour
Look outside: are your neighbours dark too? If it is only your home, it is your fuse box or residual current device.
Report the outage to your grid company and check their status map for an estimated repair time.
Switch off the hob, oven and any heaters that were on, so they do not restart by themselves when power returns.
Find torches and head lamps before it gets completely dark.
Charge your phone from a power bank or your car while you still have an overview.
If it lasts
Keep the fridge and freezer closed. A full freezer stays cold for roughly a day, a half-full one for about half that.
Gather the household in one room and close the doors to the rest of the home.
Listen to NRK P1 on a DAB or battery radio – this is the authorities' main channel.
Check on elderly neighbours and anyone living alone.
Use cash: card terminals and cash machines do not work without power.
Do not do this
Never use a barbecue, gas burner, camping stove or generator indoors, in a garage or in a basement. Carbon monoxide is odourless, colourless and lethal.
Never leave candles unattended, and never place them near curtains or on a table with a cloth.
Do not call 110 or 112 to ask when the power will return – emergency lines must be kept free.
The water is off, or you have received a boil notice
Boil notices are often issued as a precaution, before anyone knows whether the water is actually contaminated. Follow them regardless.
First hour
If you have received a boil notice: boil all water for drinking. It must reach a rolling boil for a few seconds.
The notice also covers coffee machines, ice cubes, squash, brushing teeth and washing fruit and vegetables.
If the supply is cut: drain what is left in the pipes and fill the bath, buckets and bottles while water is still running.
Check your municipality's website and social media for how long it will last.
If it lasts
Count three litres of water per person per day for drinking and cooking.
Municipalities normally place water tanks around the area during longer outages – follow announcements about where.
Wash dishes by hand using boiled water for the final rinse, or dry them thoroughly.
Washing hands with soap and running water is fine, but make sure small children do not swallow the water.
Do not do this
Do not assume that a filter jug, fridge filter or tap filter removes bacteria and viruses. They do not.
Do not drink water from streams, rivers or collected rainwater without boiling it first.
Do not cool boiled water with ice cubes from the freezer – they are made from the water you just boiled.
Mobile and internet are down
Mobile networks usually have battery backup for a few hours. When that runs out, payment systems and much else go with it.
First hour
Put your phone in flight mode when you are not using it. Otherwise it constantly searches for a signal and drains the battery.
Turn down screen brightness and switch off background updates.
Try SMS – short messages often get through when calls do not.
Turn on a DAB radio, or the FM radio in your car.
If it lasts
NRK P1 is the authorities' main channel during a crisis.
Go to the physical meeting point you agreed with your family. This is exactly when that agreement has value.
Use cash – card payments, mobile payments and online banking all require data.
If you wrote emergency numbers on paper, this is when that list earns its place.
Do not do this
Do not assume emergency numbers will always connect. If life or health is at risk, you may need to go to a fire station, out-of-hours clinic or police station in person.
Do not forward unverified messages. Rumours spread quickly during outages, and the authorities use NRK P1 precisely because it can be trusted.
It is cold and you have no heating
During a winter power cut, warmth becomes critical long before food does.
First hour
Choose one room to stay in. Preferably a small room with few external walls, towards the middle of the home.
Close the doors to the rest of the home and place towels against draughts under the doors.
Hang blankets over the windows once it gets dark.
Dress in several layers with wool closest to the skin, and wear a hat – a great deal of heat is lost through the head.
If it lasts
Eat and drink something warm if you can heat it safely.
Move around regularly. Do not sit still for hours.
Sleep in the same room, ideally sharing duvets.
If the indoor temperature falls below around ten degrees for an extended period, go to someone who has heating. This is why the checklist asks you to arrange somewhere to stay in advance.
Do not do this
Do not use a gas burner, barbecue or camping stove as a heat source indoors. This is the most common cause of death during long power cuts.
Do not use candles to heat a room – the effect is negligible and the fire risk is real.
Do not run a wood stove packed full with the air supply closed. Incomplete combustion produces carbon monoxide.
Do not drink alcohol to stay warm. It feels warming but cools the body down.
You have to leave home quickly
Evacuation is normally announced by the police, the fire service or the municipality. If you are told to leave, leave.
First hour
Take your emergency bag, regular medication, ID documents, chargers and cash.
Turn off water, electricity and gas if you have time.
Tell someone outside the area where you are going.
Bring pets. They are rarely collected later.
Lock the door and go. Do not wait for the situation to become clearer.
If it lasts
Register at the evacuation point given by the municipality, so relatives can find you.
Follow the municipality's channels and NRK P1 for when it is safe to return.
Photograph any damage before clearing up, if you intend to make an insurance claim.
Do not do this
Do not drive into water covering the road. Fifteen centimetres of moving water is enough to lose traction, and you cannot see whether the road beneath is still there.
Do not go back for things you forgot.
Do not drive past road closures, even if the road looks passable.
The advice is based on the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB), the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, the Meteorological Institute (Yr), NVE (Varsom) and the Norwegian Civil Defence. Note that several of these sources publish only in Norwegian. In any conflict, official channels and messages from your municipality take precedence.