The kitchen is the next hazard

When the storm passes or the power comes back, the danger does not end at the front door. It sits in the fridge and comes out of the tap. Food that spent hours warming up and water that may have picked up sewage or chemicals can make people sick days after the disaster itself — and the sickness is easy to miss, because unsafe food can look and smell perfectly normal. The CDC's warning is blunt on this point: unsafe food can make you sick even if it looks and smells normal.

The rules here are short, and they are all official guidance from the CDC, the American Red Cross and the EPA. They come down to two questions: is the water safe to drink, and is the food safe to eat? If you cannot answer yes with confidence, the answer is no — and the food goes out.

Water first: do not trust the tap

Do not drink the tap water until officials say the supply is safe. A boil-water advisory, a flooded treatment plant or a broken main all mean the same thing in practice: treat every drop before you drink it, cook with it, brush your teeth with it, wash dishes with it or make ice with it. Bottled water that has not been exposed to floodwater is the simplest safe choice if you have it.

If you do not have bottled water, boiling is the surest method. The Red Cross and EPA guidance agrees on the steps: first strain cloudy water through a clean cloth or let it settle and draw off the clear water. Then bring it to a rolling boil for one full minute — three minutes if you are at high altitude, above about one mile or 6,500 feet. Let it cool, and store it in clean containers with covers. Boiling kills most disease-causing organisms, including the parasites that survive in rivers and lakes.

There is a second method if you have plain household bleach and no way to boil: add 16 drops of liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water, or 8 drops per 2-litre bottle. The bleach must be plain — sodium hypochlorite at 5.25% to 6% as the only active ingredient, not lemon-scented and not fabric-safe. Stir it in and let the water stand for 30 minutes before use. Let boiled water cool for at least 30 minutes before adding bleach, or the treatment will not work. One important condition applies to all of this: if your local public-health department gives different advice, follow the local advice — it knows your water system.

The fridge: four hours, then decide

A power cut turns the fridge into a countdown. The CDC figures, which assume the doors stay closed, are worth memorising: food stays safe for up to 4 hours in a refrigerator, 48 hours in a full freezer, and 24 hours in a half-full freezer. Every time you open the door, cold air escapes and the countdown shortens — so keep the doors shut, and if the power has been out for four hours and you have a cooler and ice, move perishable refrigerated food into the cooler.

Once four hours have passed without power or another cold source like ice, throw out perishable food in the refrigerator: meat, fish, cut fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk and leftovers. Throw out anything with an unusual smell, colour or texture at any point. And never taste food to decide whether it is safe — the CDC is explicit that tasting is not a test. The rule that covers everything else is the one to repeat out loud: when in doubt, throw it out. The cost of replacing food is nothing against the cost of a waterborne illness.

Frozen food has more room. Food in a freezer that still contains ice crystals, or that is at or below 40°F, can generally be safely refrozen or cooked. That is a temperature check, not a guess — an appliance thermometer in the fridge and freezer is the cheapest way to make these decisions with confidence, and the CDC and FDA both recommend keeping one in each.

After a flood: if the water touched it, it goes

Floodwater changes the rules completely. The CDC's flood rule is absolute: throw out any food that came into contact with floodwater — including food in packaging that is not waterproof. Floodwater can contain dangerous bacteria from overflowing sewage plus agricultural and industrial waste, and no amount of washing makes food safe again after contact. Canned food in undamaged, sealed metal cans can sometimes be saved by cleaning and disinfecting the outside, but anything in cardboard, paper, plastic wrap or an opened container goes out. Our guide to what to do when water comes inside your home covers the first steps of dealing with floodwater in the house.

The same applies to anything a baby puts in its mouth, and to medicines that were soaked. Throw away food that touched floodwater even if it looks fine — the contamination is invisible, and the illness it causes is not worth the saving.

Cooking and eating when the power is out

Cook only with water you have made safe — boiled or bottled — and only with food you trust. Wash your hands with soap and clean water before eating and after any contact with floodwater, and wash dishes and utensils with safe water too. If you have no safe water for handwashing, use hand sanitiser as a stopgap, but it is not a substitute for soap and clean water where food is involved.

Do not use gas or electrical appliances that have been flooded until they have been checked by a professional, and never run a generator or any petrol-powered equipment inside the home, basement or garage, or near an open window: carbon monoxide cannot be seen or smelled, and it can kill fast. Cook outdoors where it is safe to do so, and keep children away from cooking and cleanup work.

Before the next disaster, the preparation is simple and cheap: keep a few days of bottled water and non-perishable food, an appliance thermometer in the fridge and freezer, and a bottle of plain household bleach. A pet emergency go-bag is worth packing on the same day — animals need clean water and food too. Those three things turn this guide from a recovery scramble into a routine.

What our records show, and what they miss

Our incident records track the disasters themselves — floods, storms and power outages — and they show the same pattern again and again: the disruption to water and power lasts far longer than the event that caused it. What our records do not show is what happens inside kitchens afterwards, because food poisoning and waterborne illness after a disaster are rarely reported as incidents. That gap is exactly why this guide leans on official public-health guidance rather than our own records: the CDC, the American Red Cross and the EPA set the rules for food and water safety, and the numbers in this article — the 4-hour fridge limit, the 48-hour full-freezer limit, the one-minute boil — come from them, not from us. If you are hurt while cleaning up after a disaster, our first-aid guide for sprains, strains and fractures covers what to do until help arrives, and our avalanche safety guide is a reminder that preparation before an event is always cheaper than recovery after it.

The short version

  • Do not drink tap water until officials say it is safe — use bottled water or boil it: strain, rolling boil for one full minute (three minutes at high altitude), let it cool.
  • No way to boil: 16 drops of plain bleach per gallon of water (8 drops per 2-litre bottle), stir, stand 30 minutes — local public-health advice prevails.
  • Keep fridge and freezer doors closed: food stays safe up to 4 hours in a refrigerator, 48 hours in a full freezer, 24 hours in a half-full freezer.
  • After 4 hours without power, throw out perishable fridge food — meat, fish, cut fruit and vegetables, eggs, milk, leftovers — and never taste food to test it.
  • When in doubt, throw it out: unsafe food can make you sick even if it looks and smells normal.
  • Throw out any food that touched floodwater, including food in non-waterproof packaging; wash hands with soap and clean water before eating.
  • Cook only with safe water and safe food; never run a generator indoors.