The Pentagon Is Preparing Its Bases to Run 90 Days on Their Own. Most American Families Couldn't Make It Through One Night.
As the Defense Department hardens military bases against long power outages, a 101st Airborne veteran from Scranton explains the one thing most homes get wrong, and why it matters most in the dark.
When the power goes out, it goes out for everyone on the street at once.
The people whose job is to plan for the worst have quietly picked a number: 90 days.
This month, the Department of Defense said it is developing a requirement for major US military bases to be able to run for 90 days or more on their own.
"Power is combat now," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said.
To be clear, this is about military bases. The Pentagon has not told civilians to do anything, and nobody in Washington has issued a warning to your household.
But it's worth sitting with what the decision says. The people paid to imagine worst cases looked at how their most important sites get power, and decided those sites need to be able to stand alone for three months.
They aren't planning for a flicker. They're planning for a stretch of time when outside help can't be counted on.
It isn't just the Pentagon
The 90-day plan didn't arrive out of nowhere. Over the past year, several separate signals have lined up.
- The grid regulator is worried about winter. NERC, which oversees the reliability of the North American power grid, warned that 10 of 16 US grid regions face elevated risk of blackouts this winter.
- An emergency order. In October, the Department of Energy issued an emergency order covering 13 states and Washington, DC.
- Fewer people coming to help. Since January, the Department of Homeland Security has been cutting FEMA's frontline CORE responders, with thousands more contracts ending in 2026. A former official said states would be "largely on their own."
- Other countries are telling families directly. On October 22, the UK launched its "Be Ready" campaign, asking households to prepare for three days without power or services.
Here at home, the official advice hasn't changed. Ready.gov tells families to be ready to take care of themselves for several days if the power or water goes out.
Three days. That's the window that matters most: the stretch where you may be on your own before help reliably reaches your street.
Crews work around the clock after major storms, but large outages can take days to fully restore.
90 days for the bases. One night for the rest of us.
Here's the uncomfortable gap. The government is preparing for 90 days. Most families haven't prepared for one night.
Not because they don't care. Because a blackout feels abstract until it's happening. So let's make it concrete. This is what the first 72 hours of a winter outage can look like in an ordinary home.
7:40 p.m., TuesdayThe lights blink, then go out. The furnace fan winds down. The TV cuts off mid-sentence. For a moment the house is completely silent.
7:42 p.m.Someone says, "It'll be back in a minute." Everyone reaches for a phone. The flashlight app comes on. Battery: 38%.
8:15 p.m.It isn't back. You start opening drawers for the real flashlight. You find two. One is dead. The other flickers.
11:00 p.m.The house is noticeably colder. The kids are in your bed under every blanket you own. Your phone is at 19%, so you switch it off to save it. Now you have no idea what's happening outside.
Day 2, morningYou can see your breath in the kitchen. Every house on the street is dark. The roads are icy, and the store that's open has a line out the door.
Day 2, nightSomeone cuts a hand opening a can by candlelight. You know there's a first aid kit somewhere. Under the bathroom sink? In the car?
Day 3You're tired, cold and making decisions in the dark. If officials said "leave now," what would you grab?
Most people, if they're honest, don't know.
For most families, the plan is a phone flashlight and a hope that the power comes back soon.
"I have a flashlight somewhere"
Ask almost anyone if they're ready for a blackout and you'll hear the same answer: "We've got stuff. There's a flashlight somewhere."
That word, somewhere, is the whole problem.
On a normal day, "somewhere" is fine. You have light, time and patience. You check the junk drawer, then the garage, then the glovebox.
In a blackout, you have none of those.
- The flashlight is in a drawer full of takeout menus, rubber bands and old batteries, and you're searching it by feel.
- The batteries you bought "for emergencies" went into the TV remote two years ago.
- The first aid supplies are split between the bathroom, the kitchen and the car.
- The kids are scared, and every minute you spend searching is a minute you're not with them.
- When a whole region goes dark at once, phone and emergency lines can get overwhelmed. You may not reach anyone quickly.
None of this means you did something wrong. It means your supplies are organized for daylight. Emergencies happen in the dark.
What most people try, and why it falls short
Families who do start preparing usually try one of four things.
1. Buying from a list
You find a checklist online and buy a little of everything. It arrives in eight boxes, goes into three closets, and you're back to "somewhere."
2. Downloading an app
Apps are useful for alerts. But an app on a phone at 12% can't stop bleeding, can't keep a child warm and can't light a hallway.
3. "We'll figure it out"
The most common plan, and the most hopeful one. It assumes you'll think clearly while you're cold, tired and worried. Very few people do.
4. The generator
A generator can be a real asset. But without stored fuel, a safe place to run it and a plan for refueling, many just sit in the garage. And it can't come with you if you have to leave.
All four share the same weak spot. They give you things. They don't make you ready.
That difference is something one Pennsylvania family has spent five decades thinking about.
"Somewhere" is where most emergency supplies live.
The veteran who has been packing bags since 1976
Walt Dombrowski doesn't talk like a man selling something. He talks like someone who has watched people run out of time.
Walt served with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, then came home to Scranton, Pennsylvania. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes flooded his valley.
His wife, Linda, was a nurse. She worked double shifts through the flood, and she saw the same thing again and again: families with minutes to leave and nothing ready.
"Linda would come home and tell me about it," Walt says. "People showing up with a coat and their car keys. Not because they were careless. They just didn't know where anything was, and the water wasn't going to wait while they looked."
That winter, Walt and Linda sat down at their kitchen table and packed their first grab-and-go bags. The family has been packing them since 1976. Today, Walt's son Danny runs it.
When I asked Walt about the Pentagon's 90-day plan, he didn't sound surprised.
"The Army taught me you don't plan for the day you want. You plan for the day you get," he said.
"If the people in charge of the bases are planning for ninety days, a family can plan for three."Walt Dombrowski, 101st Airborne, Vietnam '68–'69
Walt's rule: "Everything in its place, so you can grab it in the dark"
I asked Walt why so many people who own emergency supplies still struggle when the lights go out. He answered with a rule he has repeated for fifty years: "Everything in its place, so you can grab it in the dark."
Then he walked me through it, step by step. I've started calling it the Reach Rule.
Under stress, you can't search. You can only reach.
"When you're scared, your hands get clumsy and your memory goes," Walt says. "You won't remember which drawer. You'll remember one place. So give yourself one place."
Spread-out supplies disappear in the dark.
"Flashlight in the kitchen, batteries in the garage, bandages under the sink. In daylight that's three items. In the dark it's three searches. You might not finish any of them."
One bag.
"Everything for the first three days goes in one bag. Not one closet, not one shelf. One bag you can pick up with one hand."
A fixed place for everything inside it.
"The light always goes in the same pocket. First aid in the same pouch. Practice once and your hands learn it. Then you can find the light without seeing it."
By the door.
"The bag lives by the door you'd leave through. Not in the attic. If you have to go, you grab it on the way out. If you stay, you know exactly where it is."
"Having stuff means you own it. Being ready means you can reach it, in the dark, scared, in ten seconds."Walt Dombrowski
The Reach Rule, in one line
Searching fails under stress. Reaching works. One bag, a fixed place for everything, by the door.
The grab-and-go kit built around Walt's rule
The Holdout 72: built around Walt's rule
That rule is why the Dombrowskis still do things the way they do. The kit they stand behind today is called the Holdout 72 Grab-and-Go Kit, sold by Holdout Supply.
It's 47 essentials for the first 72 hours, in one tactical shoulder pouch. Everything has its place. It's made to hang by your door.
"It's not meant to be everything you'll ever need," Walt says. "It's meant to be the first thing you grab."
The Holdout 72 kit, where Walt says it belongs: by the door.
Check availability →Ships from a US warehouse · 3–5 business days
What's inside, and what each part is for
Every item answers one question you'll face in the first 72 hours, and every item has its own place in the pouch.
All 47 pieces, each with a fixed place in the pouch.
Check availability →47 essentials · one shoulder pouch · from $149
The same blackout, with the bag by the door
Go back to that Tuesday night. Same storm, same dark street. One thing is different.
Hour 1The lights go out. You walk to the front door, by feel if you have to, and lift the bag off its hook. The flashlight is in the same pocket it's always in. The hallway lights up. The kids see that you're calm.
Night 1The emergency blankets go over the kids' comforters. Your phone stays off to save the battery, because you don't need it for light. You know exactly where the first aid kit is.
Day 2Water and food come from the pantry, where you set them aside. When you check on the car or a neighbor in the sleet, the poncho keeps you dry.
Day 3If officials say leave, you're out the door in under a minute with light, first aid, warmth, fire, a compass and a whistle on your shoulder. If you stay, you stay in control.
"That's what ready feels like. Not fearless. Just not searching."Walt Dombrowski
Hour one, handled.
Check availability →Ships from a US warehouse · 3–5 business days
Setting it up takes one calm evening
Walt's advice for the day the kit arrives is simple, and it follows the Reach Rule.
Open it at the kitchen table.
Take everything out once, with the lights on. Put a battery in the flashlight. See where each item lives in the pouch, then pack it back the same way.
Pick the door.
Choose the door your family would leave through and put a hook next to it. That's where the bag lives from now on.
Set the pantry shelf.
Put water and a few days of food that doesn't need cooking on one shelf, close to the door. That's the part the bag doesn't carry.
Show everyone once.
Walk your partner and older kids to the door, show them the bag and the flashlight pocket, and turn off the lights. Let them find it in the dark. "Do it once," Walt says, "and the fear goes down for good."
Questions readers ask
Is one kit enough for my family?
No. Each kit is packed for one person: one set of emergency blankets, one poncho. Most families get one kit per person, or one for the house and one for the car.
Does it replace water and food?
No. The kit covers light, first aid, warmth, fire, navigation and signaling. Water and food come from your pantry. Keep them on a shelf next to the bag.
Where should I keep it?
By the door you would leave through, on a hook, where every adult in the house can reach it without thinking. A second kit lives well in the trunk of the car.
How fast does it arrive?
Kits ship from a US warehouse and are delivered in 3–5 business days, with flat $9.99 shipping per order.
Check availability →Flat $9.99 shipping · 14-day returns on unused kits
The people whose job it is to plan for emergencies are planning. So should your family.
The Pentagon is preparing its bases for 90 days. Grid regulators are warning about winter. The UK is telling families to get ready for three days on their own.
You don't need 90 days of supplies. You need the first 72 hours handled, in one place, by your door, before the night you need it.
"Do it on a calm day," Walt says. "The day you need it won't be calm."
Where to get the Holdout 72
The Holdout 72 Grab-and-Go Kit is sold online by Holdout Supply. Each kit is packed for one person, so most families get one per person, or one for the house and one for the car.
1 Kit
For one person2 Kits: Home + Car
One by the door, one in the trunk3 Kits: Home + Car + Family
One for each person, or a spare for family- Flat $9.99 shipping per order
- Ships from a US warehouse, delivered in 3–5 business days
- 14-day returns on unused kits
- Add water and food from your pantry
Holdout Supply · Secure checkout