The lights go off.Then the water.Then what?
When Everything Stops shows an ordinary household how to get through days, weeks or longer without electricity, internet, shops or hospitals. Safe water, fire, food, first aid, power and shelter, in short steps and clear drawings, written for someone who has never lit a fire without a gas ring.
It doesn't take a disaster
This is how the book opens. No war, no storm. Just a big piece of the grid failing, and a street finding out what runs on electricity.
- Hour one
Priya reaches for her phone in the dark. No signal. She assumes it is her phone. It is not her phone.
- Lunchtime
The shop on the corner is taking cash only, and nobody has any.
- Evening
The water pressure drops, because the pumps that push water up the hill run on electricity too.
- Day two
A queue around the block at the petrol station, and a hand-written sign: NO CARD
“Nothing had exploded. There was no storm. A big piece of the grid had failed and nobody could say when it would be fixed. That is all it takes.”— Chapter 1, The First Three Days
Numbers you can remember by torchlight
Every chapter boils down to a few things you can actually do, with the measurements written out. A taste:
Make water safe three ways
Boil for one minute. Or two drops of plain bleach a litre and wait 30 minutes. Or a clear bottle in full sun for six hours.
Know how much to store
Four litres per person per day. A family of four needs about fifty litres for three days. A full bath holds more than that.
Stop heavy bleeding
Press hard for ten minutes and don't peek. If it's spurting from a limb and pressure fails, the book shows you the tourniquet, step by step.
Mix a rehydration drink
1 litre clean water, 6 level teaspoons of sugar, ½ teaspoon of salt. No saltier than tears. Made fresh every day.
Treat a burn properly
Cool running water for twenty minutes. Cling film over, loose. No ice, no butter, no toothpaste.
Run a house on one panel
A 100-watt panel runs phones, lights, a radio and a fan. Not a fridge, not a kettle. The book wires it up safely.
Avoid the quiet killer
No generator or charcoal inside, even with the door open. Generators six metres from any window. Several people with headaches at once means get outside.
Know what water can do
15 cm of moving water knocks an adult down. 30–60 cm floats a car. Move up, not out.
Pictures you can build from
When you are tired and worried, a picture is easier than a paragraph. Every drawing shows what goes where and in what order, and puts the one warning that matters in red.
It also tells you what doesn't work
Every method is checked against published guidance and the sources are listed at the back. The chapter on kitchen and garden remedies sets the classical Ayurvedic texts beside modern clinical trials, and labels each remedy honestly.
Supported by proper trials or official health guidance. Ginger for nausea. Honey for a cough in anyone over one year old.
Long use and some real studies, but not settled. Turmeric and gotu kola on the skin. You're told exactly how strong the evidence is.
Comforting and safe at kitchen doses, but not shown to cure anything. Aloe vera on sunburn, coriander seed tea. Said plainly.
- No herb is offered as a cure for infection, dehydration, trauma, diabetes or cancer.
- Never neem oil by mouth. The leaf wash for itchy skin only.
- Snake bite: never cut, suck, tie tight, ice or put herbs on it. Antivenom is the only treatment.
- No ibuprofen if dengue is possible. No aspirin under sixteen.
What's inside
Read it once on a quiet evening. After that, open it at the page you need.
Before
What a long outage does to a town. Two weeks of water and food, a radio, a torch, a list on paper.
Light, heat and fire
Making fire, cooking without electricity, safe light, one warm room, sleeping cool in the tropics.
Water and toilets
Finding and storing water, making it safe, toilets and handwashing when the plumbing stops.
Growing and keeping food
A garden in 30 days, the crops that feed people, food without a fridge, hens and small fish.
When there is no doctor
The medical box, bleeding, burns, fever, diarrhoea, babies and old people, kitchen medicine.
Shelter and repairs
Tarps and bamboo, six knots, a leaking pipe, a torn roof, a sharp knife.
Making your own electricity
Small solar done right. Honest numbers on pedal, crank, car and water power.
Information and finding your way
Radio without the internet. Maps, compass, sun and stars without GPS.
The long haul
Rationing without fighting, working with neighbours, staying safe.
Special cases
Floods, cyclones, heat, wildfire, outbreaks, nuclear and chemical incidents.
Ten weekend projects
Rocket stove, rain catcher, water filter, solar kit, tippy-tap, bucket toilet, sack garden, food dryer, tarp shelter, clay-pot cooler.
The quick cards
Sixteen tear-out pages for the cupboard door. Each chapter also ends with its own.
The whole chapter on one card
Every chapter ends with a quick card: the chapter boiled down to a few lines you can read by torchlight. This is the one for water, word for word from the book.
Written for heat, monsoon and dengue first, with cold-climate notes where they matter. Metric first.
Get all 16 freeWater
- Boil 1 minute · or 2 drops plain bleach per litre, wait 30 min · or clear PET bottle in full sun 6 hours.
- Cloudy? Settle, cloth-filter, then treat. Double the bleach.
- Smells of fuel or chemicals? Don't drink it.
- 4 litres per person per day.
Put one on the shelf with the candles
The paperback is the one that works when nothing else does. The Kindle edition is the one you'll have on your phone when you need it today.
Paperback
- 350 pages, 6 × 9 in, cream paper
- 85 drawings printed large enough to build from
- 16 quick cards to copy or tear out
- Sources listed at the back, chapter by chapter
Kindle eBook
- Free to read with Kindle Unlimited
- Every drawing included
- Linked contents: jump straight to the page you need
- Reads on any phone with the free Kindle app
16 quick cards for the cupboard door
The first 72 hours, water, bleeding, burns, the rehydration drink, fire, carbon monoxide, heat, snake bite, floods, leaving home, solar, the sick room and more. A printable PDF straight from Part Twelve of the book.
Print it. Stick it up. Then you have the important parts even if you never buy the book.
Written for beginners, on purpose
I did not write this book for experts. I wrote it for the person who has never lit a fire without a gas ring, who has never thought about where the tap water comes from, and who has just found out the power will not be back for a while.
So I have kept the words simple. I have kept the steps short. And I have drawn a picture for nearly everything.
If you only remember one thing from the whole book, remember this: the best time to learn any of this is before you need it. Read it once now, on a quiet evening. Then put it on the shelf with the candles. It will still work when nothing else does.
Before you buy
Is this a prepper book?
Not in the bunker-and-rifles sense. It is for ordinary households: a flat or a house, a family, maybe an old parent or a baby. Most of it is about water, food, toilets, first aid and getting on with the neighbours, because that is what a long outage is actually about.
I live somewhere cold. Is it still useful?
Yes. It is written for the tropics first, which means heat, monsoon and dengue get proper attention, and there are cold-climate notes wherever the advice changes, such as keeping one room warm.
Is it medical advice?
No. It is first aid and home care for when help is far away or slow, with clear signs for when to get someone to a clinic. It follows Red Cross/AHA 2024 first-aid guidance, CDC and WHO, and it says plainly where the evidence is weak.
Paperback or Kindle?
Both, if you can. The Kindle edition is good for reading now and searching later. The paperback still works when the phone is dead, and that's when you'll want it.
Do I need tools or skills to start?
No. Chapter 1 needs a pen and paper. The weekend projects list every part and its rough cost, and most use buckets, tins, tarps and a few hand tools.