Every time an emergency agency pops up on the news suggesting households keep a 72-hour emergency kit on hand, I do the same thing: nod knowingly, assume they’re talking to someone far less organized than me, and scroll on.

In my head, I’m a reasonably capable adult. The fridge is full, there are batteries rattling around in a drawer somewhere, and I have a phone flashlight. Surely that counts as disaster preparedness.

Curiosity finally won out, so I decided to run an honest, room-by-room audit of what would actually happen if our power lines went dark for three straight days. The verdict was... humbling.

It turns out my master survival plan was heavily reliant on an active Wi-Fi connection, an electric stovetop, and blind optimism. Here's five glaring blind spots I completely overlooked, and what you should do so you don't make the same mistakes.

Opening my junk drawer during the audit revealed two decorative candles, a lighter that took six clicks to spark, and I didn't have a flashlight. My entire plan, it seemed, was an iPhone and an ancient power bank that refused to charge past 12%. Using a phone flashlight burns through battery, leaving you without light, or a lifeline.

Retire your phone as a light source and stash dedicated LED lights or magnetic lanterns where you can grab them in pitch black, like a bedside drawer. Pair them with an inexpensive hand-crank AM/FM emergency radio : it pulls in vital civil broadcasts with zero Wi-Fi, and the built-in dynamo handle doubles as a manual charger as a last resort if your devices die.

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