As widespread power outages continue in Greene County, following tornadoes and thunderstorms on Wednesday, precautions need to be kept in mind.

Midland Power Cooperative Director of Communications Ryan Henn suggests purchasing a whole house generator as well as offering these other suggestions as their crews continue to restore power, which Henn adds could take several days.

“Clearly emphasize with our members, we know they are in a bind. We suggest that if they have friends and family in the area they can stay with. Obviously folks rely on electricity to power their natural gas furnaces. We want people to be prepared. We hope that we obviously can be back online quicker than we are currently anticipating. But we need to plan for the worst case scenario for members to be without power for a few days as we work to bring everything back up.”   

 Additionally, Greene County Public Health has some safety reminders for when it is safe to eat foods from the refrigerator following a power outage. Between 24 and 48 hours, all perishable food should be kept in a half-full freezer. Then after 48 hours, all perishable foods should be kept in the freezer. Another precaution is never taste food to see if it is safe to eat, Greene County Public Health would rather you follow the rule, “When in doubt, throw it out.” You should also throw out food that has an unusual color, odor or taste.