Quick answer
Plan to be on your own for 7 days, possibly without power. For 4 people that means 28 gallons of water stored where it will not freeze, about 56,000 calories of no-cook food, serious blankets or sleeping bags for everyone, and one hard rule: nothing that burns fuel runs indoors. Texas in 2021 proved the grid is part of the storm. This page shows you the exact gap.
Numbers are set for 4 people. Change your household size below and every quantity updates.
30 min
Frostbite time on exposed skin in severe wind chill
250 gal
Daily leak from one burst pipe crack
4+ days
Outage length in major ice storms
1 gal
Water per person per day
How a winter storm actually unfolds
3 days out
The forecast firms up. Quiet-store window: groceries, prescriptions, gas tank, salt, and batteries, bought at normal prices from full shelves.
24 hours · Warning
Charge everything. Locate your water shutoff and test it. Park the car clear of trees, and pick tonight's warm room: smallest, fewest windows, door that closes.
The cold days
If power fails, close off the warm room and live there. Faucets drip, cabinet doors open, layers on. Fuel-burning anything stays outside, full stop.
The thaw
Roads clear before problems do. Thawing is when burst pipes announce themselves, so watch ceilings and cabinets, and check on neighbors who ran the week alone.
Play it out
Freezing rain, three decisions
A quick role-play of how an ice storm actually goes for a family of four. Pick what your household would honestly do.
Scene 1 of 3
Tuesday. The forecast says ice Thursday night: a quarter inch on everything, maybe half an inch on the high side. Your pantry is whatever a normal Tuesday says it is, and the fridge is due for a shop anyway.
Prefer to read it straight through?
Scene 1
Tuesday. The forecast says ice Thursday night: a quarter inch on everything, maybe half an inch on the high side. Your pantry is whatever a normal Tuesday says it is, and the fridge is due for a shop anyway.
If you friday is payday. shop after work thursday like usual: Thursday after work is when the whole county shops. The bread aisle is a rumor, water is rationed to two cases per customer, and the parking lot is a rink. You leave with some of the list and all of the stress.
If you do the week's shop tuesday night, plus the storm list: Full shelves, no lines, normal prices. You add salt, batteries, and two extra jugs of water, fill the gas tank on the way home, and Thursday becomes a night to watch the weather instead of race it.
Field note: Ice forecasts move shelves faster than snow forecasts: a quarter inch of ice is a power-line event, and everyone knows it. The quiet window closes about 48 hours out.
Scene 2
Friday, 2am. A sound like a gunshot from the yard: a limb letting go under the ice. The lights die with it. The house is 68 degrees and will lose a degree or two every hour from here.
If you heat the whole house: oven door open, every space heater on the extension cords: The oven was never designed to heat a house and the extension cords were never rated for heaters. Breakers trip in the dark, the temperature keeps sliding anyway, and you spend the night managing equipment instead of sleeping.
If you shrink the house: one room, doors closed, towels at the gaps: The den with the sleeping bags holds the high 50s off body heat and blankets alone. Kids call it camping. The rest of the house can be cold; nobody lives there this weekend.
Field note: You do not heat the house, you heat the people. One small room, layered clothing, and rated equipment only. Never run generators, grills, camp stoves, or a car engine indoors or in the garage: carbon monoxide is invisible, odorless, and fast. A battery CO alarm is the non-negotiable partner to any backup heat.
Scene 3
Saturday night. Still no power. The forecast bottoms out at 9 degrees, and the pipes along the north wall run through the uninsulated garage ceiling.
If you the pipes have always been fine. sleep: At 4am the ceiling over the garage starts dripping through the drywall seam. You find the water shutoff by phone light, third try, while the puddle spreads. The plumber's voicemail is full until Tuesday, and the repair quote has a comma in it.
If you drip the far faucets, open the cabinets, shut off and drain the garage line: Ten unglamorous minutes. Moving water resists freezing, warm room air reaches the pipes under the sinks, and the vulnerable line is empty. The 9-degree night is just a cold night, not a renovation.
Field note: A crack an eighth of an inch wide can release around 250 gallons a day once it thaws. Dripping faucets, open cabinet doors, and knowing the shutoff valve are the whole defense, and all three are set up before bed, not at 4am.
The winter storm checklist
People in your household
One page per scenario: quantities resize in place, and the link you share always shows this plan.
Your head start
0 of 7 days covered
0 of 14 essentials on hand
Tick what you already own.Save this as your real plan →Supplies buy you days. Gear keeps those days livable. Most families discover they start around day 3.
| Item | For 4 people | Why it matters | Covers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water, stored where it will not freeze · 28 gallons total | ||||
| Bottled water, 24-pack cases | 6 cases (about 17 gal) | Sealed, portable, splits between rooms and the car. | Days 1 to 5 | |
| 5-gallon water jugs | 3 jugs | The cheapest gallons you can store. Fill spares before the event, not during. | Days 6 to 7 | |
| Water purification tablets | 1 pack | Turns suspect tap or tub water into drinking water after day 7. | Backup | |
| Food, no cooking required | ||||
| Canned protein: tuna, chicken, beans | 18 cans | Eats straight from the can when the stove is out. | No cooking | |
| Canned vegetables and fruit | 20 cans | Fluids and vitamins while the fridge is dark. | No cooking | |
| Peanut butter | 2 large jars | 2,650 calories per jar, no prep, kids will actually eat it. | No cooking | |
| Crackers, tortillas, granola bars | 4 boxes plus a dozen bars | The bread aisle empties first. These keep for months instead of days. | No cooking | |
| Oats and shelf-stable milk | 6 cartons plus a canister of oats | Breakfast without power, and the milk needs no fridge until opened. | No cooking | |
| Power, light, and news | ||||
| Flashlights or headlamps | 5 flashlights | One per person plus a spare. Candles start fires in dark houses. | All week | |
| Batteries in every size you use | 2 packs per size | The thing that runs out on day 2 if you guess. | All week | |
| Phone battery banks, fully charged | 2 banks | Your phone is your flashlight, radio, and lifeline. Top the banks up the moment trouble is forecast. | All week | |
| NOAA weather radio, battery or crank | 1 | When cell towers and wifi fail, official updates still reach you here. | All week | |
| Health and documents | ||||
| First aid kit | 1 | Minor injuries spike during cleanup, exactly when help is hardest to reach. | All week | |
| Prescription medications | 14-day supply each | Pharmacies reopen slowly. Ask your pharmacist about an emergency refill before you need it. | 2 weeks | |
| Documents in a waterproof bag | IDs, insurance, cash in small bills | ATMs and card readers die with the power. | Grab and go | |
| Manual can opener | 1 | Most of the calories above are locked inside cans without it. | Critical | |
| Warmth and pipes | ||||
| Sleeping bags or heavy wool blankets | 4 bags or blanket sets | The warm-room strategy runs on these, not on the furnace. | Cold nights | |
| Battery carbon monoxide alarm | 1 | If any backup heat ever runs, this is not optional. CO is invisible, odorless, and fast. | Critical | |
| Hand and foot warmers | 12 pairs | Cheap, safe heat for pockets, boots, and the bottom of a sleeping bag. | Cold nights | |
| Rock salt or sand, and a snow shovel | 1 bag each, 1 shovel | Falls on ice fill emergency rooms during every storm. Your steps and walkway are yours to keep walkable. | All week | |
| Car winter kit: blankets, kitty litter, scraper | 1 kit per car | The storm catches cars too. Litter gives stuck tires grip; the blanket waits for the worst commute. | Every trip | |
Quantities land slightly above target on purpose: appetite goes up in a cold house. Swap freely inside each category to match what your family actually eats. Print this page to take it shopping.
In the app
Your winter plan should not live on a printout
Provision Planner has a built-in Winter Storm scenario. Add your supplies once and it tells you how many days you would last, what expires before the season turns, and what to restock. Live National Weather Service alerts are built in, so the warning and the plan live in the same place.
Run the winter storm scenarioWinter Storm scenario
Water
7 days
Food
9 days
Warmth and power
5 days · restock
NWS winter alerts for your area
Live
Computed from your real inventory. Updates itself as things expire.
Frequently asked questions
How much water does a family of 4 need for a winter storm?
28 gallons: one gallon per person per day for 7 days. Winter is the season that attacks your plumbing: burst pipes and frozen mains can cut a house off from tap water for days. Store it inside living space, not the garage, so your reserve does not freeze solid.
How do we stay warm if the power goes out?
Shrink the house. Pick the smallest room with the fewest windows, close it off, and live there in layers with sleeping bags. You are heating people, not square footage. Never run a generator, grill, camp stove, or car engine indoors or in a garage, and keep any heater three feet from everything that burns.
Should I really let the faucets drip?
Yes. Moving water resists freezing, and the drip costs pennies against a burst-pipe deductible. Open cabinet doors so room heat reaches the pipes under sinks, and find your main water shutoff before the storm: if a pipe does burst, that valve is the difference between a puddle and a flooded floor.
What belongs in the car for a winter storm?
Blankets, a bag of kitty litter for traction, an ice scraper, a flashlight, a phone cable, and a few granola bars. The safest move during a warning is not driving at all, but the kit rides along for the trip that could not wait.
Explore more scenarios
Every scenario gets the same treatment: the event, the supplies, the timeline, and your number.
Scenario 06Power Outage
Scenario 07Grid Failure
Scenario 18Stranded in Your Car
Scenario 10Water Outage
Scenario 15House Fire34 scenarios, one libraryBrowse them all →Go deeper: Winter Storm Preparedness · Emergency Cooking Without Power · 1-Week Supply Plan for 4 People · Food Storage Calculator
Water and calorie targets follow FEMA and Ready.gov emergency planning guidance; cold-safety rules follow the National Weather Service and CDC. This is general planning guidance: adjust for medical needs, age, and what your household actually eats. Carbon monoxide safety is absolute: fuel-burning equipment never runs indoors. Photography: NASA image library and Pexels, used under their respective licenses.