Prepare for the storm before it arrives, and during an outage do four things: report it to the right utility (Newfoundland Power on the island, NL Hydro in Labrador and the rural and isolated systems), keep the fridge and freezer doors shut to protect food, heat the house safely with indoor-rated heat only, and run any generator outdoors, well away from windows and doors, because it produces deadly carbon monoxide.
24-hour outage line for island customers, plus an online outage map. This is the number if Newfoundland Power bills you.
24-hour outage and emergency line for NL Hydro customers, plus online reporting. This is the number if NL Hydro bills you directly.
For a downed power line or any life-threatening emergency, call 911 first. Treat every fallen line as live, stay back at least 10 metres, and keep others away.
Outage lines: Newfoundland Power and NL Hydro outage centres. Confirm the current numbers on each utility's outage page. As of June 2026.
The belief that costs people a cold, dangerous night
Two assumptions get households into trouble. The first is "the utility already knows", so no one reports the outage, which can slow the response, especially for a fault affecting only a few homes. The second, and far more dangerous, is "I will just run the generator in the garage" or "I will warm up with the barbecue", improvisations that have killed people through carbon monoxide poisoning. A storm-exposed, electric-heated province rewards preparation and punishes shortcuts.
The useful reframing is that a winter outage is a known seasonal hazard with a simple, durable checklist. Report to the right utility so they have the full picture, protect food by keeping doors shut, heat only with equipment designed for indoors, and keep every fuel-burning device, generators included, outside and well clear of the house. None of this depends on the year; all of it depends on knowing it before the lights go out.
The readiness routine, by timing
Confirm which utility serves you and save its outage number in your phone.
Test carbon monoxide and smoke alarms; replace batteries.
Build a kit: flashlights, batteries, water, non-perishable food, a battery or crank radio, blankets, and a phone power bank.
Charge phones and power banks fully.
Fill some water containers and set the fridge and freezer a little colder.
Park clear of trees and lines; bring loose items indoors.
Report it to the right utility and check the outage map.
Keep fridge and freezer doors shut.
Heat safely indoors, run any generator outdoors only, and gather into one room.
The non-obvious thing: carbon monoxide is the real winter risk
When the power goes out in the cold, the danger that actually harms people is rarely the cold itself, it is carbon monoxide from the things people use to fight the cold. Carbon monoxide, or CO, is a colourless, odourless gas produced whenever a fuel burns without enough air. A generator, a barbecue, a camp stove, a propane heater not rated for indoor use, or a car left running in an attached garage can all fill a home with it silently, and the early symptoms, headache, dizziness, nausea, are easy to mistake for ordinary tiredness in a stressful night.
The rules are simple and absolute. Run generators outdoors only, well away from any window, door or vent. Never use a barbecue, camp stove or any outdoor fuel appliance inside. Keep working CO alarms on every level of the home, and if an alarm sounds, get everyone outside into fresh air and call for help. These habits cost almost nothing and are the single most important part of outage readiness in a province where electric heat means a power cut is also a heating cut.
The DarkNL lesson, and why it still matters
In January 2014, a combination of severe winter weather and a stretched supply forced rotating outages across the island, an episode Newfoundlanders remember as "DarkNL". It became a defining moment in how the province thinks about electricity reliability, and it sits behind the careful, backup-heavy way the grid is run today, with the Labrador-Island Link carrying most of the island's power and the aging Holyrood station kept on standby.
The durable takeaway for a household is not alarm, it is preparation. A storm-exposed province with long winters and an electric-heated housing stock will always have outage risk, and the cheapest insurance is the routine above: know your utility, keep a kit, and never bring combustion indoors. That readiness, plus knowing which company to call, is the practical end of the same two-utility story this series began with.
Why this matters now
In Newfoundland and Labrador, a winter outage is a power cut and a heating cut at the same time, which is why a small amount of preparation pays off so heavily. Knowing which utility to call, protecting your food, heating safely, and keeping every generator and fuel appliance outdoors are habits that do not change from year to year. Set them up before the first big storm, and the season's worst night becomes an inconvenience instead of an emergency.
