The above is temperature data for the duration of the power outage. 'House temp' is the temperature inside the house. The weather data is from various sites at the weather office

I had no idea how fast the house would cool. It is an old house, with some insulation. Over the years, I have weatherstripped and caulked the obvious leak points. When the power went off, we were very careful not to leave doors open too long while coming and going, and closed off cooler rooms to keep the heat in as long as possible. When the temperature got to around 6 degrees, we moved the cats to a warm house, because by then I had no idea when the power would return; it could be in the next 15 minutes or 15 hours. With the cats safe, I was then free to consider taking a hotel room or going to a warming center set up by the city in various community centres outside the blackout area.

House temps were taken at random times, rounded up to next 5 minutes, estimates of outside temp done linearly.

It got very cold inside; by 7 pm Friday, I could see my breath in the dull glow of candles or flashlights.

Things to think about to be prepared for a power outage:

• Have a battery powered radio at hand, TV and the Internet will not be available for news.
• Have flashlights in known locations on every floor of the house, and plenty of spare (not rechargeable) batteries on hand.
• Know where the flashlight is; you may be scrambling in the dark to find the first lamp.
• Hope like heck that the outage is localized; if the entire GTA had been out for a lengthy period in winter, this would have been a much worse event. As it was, the power came on last at my house, so we were nearly 24 hours without heat or light.
• Maintain the weatherstripping and caulking in your house. Maybe hire an insulation contractor to seal it up.
• Vote for federal, provincial, and municipal candidates that support infrastructure renewal for Canadian cities and towns. This blackout was caused by a broken water main flooding a hydro substation. Paying attention to the crumbling bits of Toronto may have prevented this outage or the next one.