As of late September 2026, when the power drops in my Port St. Lucie house, the old reflex is to leave everything exactly as it was. The lamps stay switched on, the TV stays on, the computer stays plugged in, and the thinking goes that you’ll know the second it all comes back. I carried that one down from New Jersey, where an outage was a rare evening with candles, not a regular part of the year.
Here in Florida, the utility that runs my lines has already written the answer on its storm restoration page. FPL tells customers to leave a single lamp or radio turned on to alert you that power has been restored. One lamp does the job the whole house was doing, and everything else should be off before the power returns.
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What FPL says
FPL’s instructions are specific: “Should your power go out, turn off and disconnect electronic equipment such as computers, TVs, stereos, microwave oven, etc. to prevent possible damage.” And when the power is restored, it says to turn on appliances one at a time…