The First Steps to Take When Your Power Goes Out

When the power goes out, the first steps you should take are to ensure safety, determine the cause, protect your appliances, and conserve food. Start by checking that your family is safe, using flashlights instead of candles, and keeping refrigerator doors closed.

A power outage can happen at any time, whether from a tripped breaker, a utility failure, storm damage, or a wiring fault inside your home or building. In the Gulf South, where hurricane season runs from June through November and summer thunderstorms are frequent, outages are a fact of life.

What you do in the first few minutes matters, both for your safety and for getting power restored as quickly as possible. At Big Easy Electricians, we serve residential and commercial customers across New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf South region.

If your power is out and you are not sure where to start, contact us today for fast, professional help.

What Should You Do the Moment Your Power Goes Out?

Stay calm and prioritize safety right away. Turn off or unplug major appliances to prevent damage from a surge when electricity returns, and grab a flashlight or battery-powered light source so you are not navigating your home or building in the dark.

Your first action should be to confirm whether the outage is limited to your property or affects the broader area. Look outside to see if neighboring homes or businesses have power, or check Entergy Louisiana’s outage map online. If the outage is area-wide, contact your utility provider and wait for their restoration timeline. If your neighbors have power and you do not, the problem is likely inside your electrical system.

How Do You Tell If the Problem Is Inside Your Property or Outside?

A quick check of your surroundings tells you whether to call your utility company or an electrician. If nearby properties have power and yours does not, the cause is almost certainly inside your electrical system, and your circuit breaker panel is the first place to check.

Start by looking at your utility meter on the outside of your building. If the meter is dark or shows no reading, contact Entergy Louisiana or your local utility, as the problem is on their end. If the meter appears normal, head to your electrical panel inside and look for any breakers that have tripped to the off position or are stuck halfway between on and off.

What Should You Check at Your Electrical Panel?

Your electrical panel is the control center for your home or building’s power. Open the panel door and scan for any breaker that is not fully in the on position, as a tripped breaker will sit visibly out of alignment or in the middle position.

How to Reset a Tripped Breaker

• Step 1, Turn off connected loads: Switch off the lights and unplug appliances on that circuit before touching the breaker.
• Step 2, Push to full off first: Press the tripped breaker firmly all the way to the off position before flipping it back to on. Skipping this step is the most common reset mistake.
• Step 3, Restore power: Flip the breaker to on. If it holds, power should return to that circuit immediately.
• Step 4, If it trips again: Stop. Do not keep resetting. A breaker that won’t stay on is signaling a deeper fault.

When the Panel Looks Normal but Power Is Still Out

If all breakers are in the on position and power is still out, the issue may be with your main breaker, a loose connection inside the panel, or a fault in the wiring feeding your home. This is the point where a licensed electrical troubleshooting professional should take over. Do not guess at a fix inside a live panel.

When Is It Safe to Reset a Tripped Breaker on Your Own?

Resetting a single tripped breaker is generally safe as long as there is no visible damage, no burning smell, and the breaker does not trip again right after being reset. If any of those warning signs are present, stop immediately and call a licensed electrician.

A breaker that trips repeatedly is a signal that something is wrong. It may indicate an overloaded circuit, a short circuit, or a ground fault, and each of those causes requires a different fix.

Attempting to force a breaker back on without knowing which problem you are dealing with can cause further damage or create a fire hazard. The right move is to leave the breaker off and schedule electrical repairs with a licensed professional.

What Are the Warning Signs You Need to Call an Electrician?

Call a licensed electrician if you smell burning near the panel or an outlet, see scorch marks or discoloration, notice that power keeps cutting out in the same part of your home, or if the main breaker itself has tripped. These are not situations to troubleshoot on your own.

• Burning smell or scorch marks: Any smell of burning plastic or discoloration around outlets, switches, or the panel is a fire risk. Shut off the affected circuit and call an electrician before restoring power.
• Breaker that keeps tripping: A breaker that will not stay on is telling you something. It may indicate an overloaded circuit, a short circuit, or a ground fault, and each requires a different fix.
• Buzzing or humming near the panel: Electrical panels should be silent. Any audible noise points to a loose connection, a failing breaker, or arcing inside the panel.
• Warm outlets or switches: Heat at a switch or outlet face means current is flowing where it should not. Stop using that outlet and have it inspected.
• Flickering that preceded the outage: If your lights were flickering before the power cut out entirely, the outage was likely caused by a wiring fault, not a utility issue.

Older homes in New Orleans, particularly those with original knob-and-tube wiring or aluminum wiring from the 1960s and 1970s, are especially prone to these failure patterns. Scheduling routine electrical maintenance before problems develop is the most reliable way to avoid an unexpected outage and the safety risks that come with one.

How Should a Business Handle a Sudden Power Loss?

Commercial power loss carries higher stakes than a residential outage, and businesses should respond systematically. The first priority is protecting sensitive equipment from voltage spikes, followed by checking the commercial panel and confirming whether the issue is internal or utility-related.

Immediate Steps for Commercial Properties

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  Power down sensitive equipment: Shut off servers, POS systems, commercial refrigeration units, and HVAC systems before power fluctuates further. Voltage spikes during restoration can damage equipment that would otherwise survive the outage itself.

• Check the commercial panel: Head to your electrical distribution panel and look for tripped breakers. Reset only if there are no signs of damage, burning, or repeated tripping.
• Contact your utility provider: Confirm whether the outage is external before calling an electrician. If the utility confirms your service is active, the problem is inside your building.

When to Call an Electrician for Your Business

If the outage affects only part of your building, do not attempt to restore full power without a professional assessment. Partial outages in commercial properties often point to a failing breaker, a wiring fault, or an overloaded distribution panel. Downtime is expensive, and a proper diagnosis upfront costs far less than the damage a forced reset can cause to commercial equipment or wiring.

Don’t Wait in the Dark. We’re Ready to Help

Knowing the right steps when the power goes out protects your appliances, keeps your household or team safe, and often gets your power back faster. Most outages come down to a tripped breaker or an external utility issue, but some point to deeper wiring problems that a professional needs to find and fix before power can be safely restored.

At Big Easy Electricians, we are New Orleans’ trusted electrical contractor with over 30 years of experience serving homes and businesses across the Greater New Orleans area. Call us at 504-226-7555 for emergency electrical service or a free estimate.

Frequently Asked Questions