The second night with the lights off

Most injuries in a short outage are ordinary: a step missed on the stairs, a shin on a table, a candle too close to a curtain. One flashlight for every two people, and at least one, is the whole point of the light line. The spare batteries have to be in the same bag. A flashlight with no cells is how the second night gets worse than the first, after the phone flashlight has already cooked the battery you needed for a call.

Mark power outage and the list adds a battery lantern for the room people actually sit in, plus a weather radio. The same lantern shows up on a two-week or 30-day kit, and on a Thorough budget. Five or more people, two lanterns. Flashlights move with the person who is walking. The lantern stays with whoever is still in the room, including kids who should not be carrying a flame around. Same battery size for both, if you can find it, so one forgotten pack doesn't kill every light at once.

The radio is there because the phone is a bad plan. Towers get busy, batteries die, and a rumor in a group text is not the boil-water notice. Find the local weather channel on a Sunday when nothing is wrong. In the dark, you will not want to hunt for it.

There is no generator on this list, on purpose. The risk people underestimate is running one in a garage or near a window. Carbon monoxide from that mistake kills people in ordinary outages, including people who thought the door was open enough. Fuel, outdoor placement, and the manual belong to the generator you already decided to own. They don't belong as a casual add-on next to a flashlight.

Keep the lights in one bin. If a kid takes the flashlight camping, it comes back. The version of this category that fails is the one that was useful last July and is now in the trunk.