Internet & Grid Outage Survival Kit: What Your Household Actually Needs
A free, sized-to-your-household checklist for when EFTPOS, ATMs, supermarkets and phones all run on the internet.
Published 15 September 2026 · 11 min read
A complete internet outage is never just no Wi-Fi. EFTPOS and ATMs run over the internet, so payments stop. Supermarket stock and ordering systems go down, so shelves stop refilling. VoIP and NBN phones drop out. GPS dependent logistics and smart home or security systems can all be affected too. Most households have no printed or offline fallback for any of it.
This kit is built around a realistic 3 day baseline, the same figure Australian emergency services publish, with 37 items across water, food, power, communication, and more. Set your household size below and every quantity recalculates. Every item explains what it actually helps with, not just what it is.
Could AI actually cause the next major outage?
It is not just a hypothetical anymore. The same AI data centres now straining the US power grid pushed the American grid regulator NERC to issue its highest level alert in May 2026, after data centre demand spiked and then dropped by more than a gigawatt in seconds, exactly the kind of shock that can cascade into a wider blackout. Those same data centres sit inside a small number of hyperscale cloud providers that Australian banks, retailers, and telcos also run on.
In September 2026, three of the world's largest AI platforms, ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok, went down together after one of those providers had an infrastructure failure, a preview of how concentrated that dependency has become. An AI triggered disruption to the internet, or to the grid behind it, is a live and growing risk, not a distant one, and this kit is built to get your household through whichever kind of outage actually happens.
Before you spend a dollar
Six free things worth doing before you buy anything on this list.
Keep your fuel tank above half
Petrol pumps run on EFTPOS and networked pump control, so an outage can leave fuel physically in the ground but impossible to buy.
Print your digital account recovery codes
For banking, email, and any authenticator app. See the Cash and documents category below for how.
Agree an out of area contact
Someone not local to you that everyone can check in with if local phone lines are congested.
Test your kit twice a year
Check expiry dates on food and medicine, battery levels on power banks, and that everyone in the house still knows where it is.
Download offline map areas for your region
Set this up in Google Maps or Apple Maps while you still have a connection. It still depends on a charged phone, which is exactly what the power bank below is for.
Write a one page family emergency plan
Where to meet, who calls whom, and who checks on elderly or disabled family and neighbours. The Australian Red Cross calls this a RediPlan, and it makes more difference to how calm an outage feels than any single item on this list.
Build your kit
Household size
Shopping links
Packed
Collapsible water containers
Rigid drums are for storage at home. These are for carrying water back from a tap, tank, or filter point without needing a car.
Portable water filter
Bottled water sells out within hours of any emergency warning, and if mains pressure drops you may need to draw from a tank, rainwater, or a local creek. A portable filter turns any of those into safe drinking water without power or a boil.
Stored drinking water
This is the minimum reserve to have on hand before you need it, not a target to stop at. Australian emergency services recommend 3 litres per person per day for drinking and basic hygiene.
Water purification tablets
Your backup for when the filter is in use, lost, or damaged. Something this critical should never depend on a single method.
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Frequently asked
Could AI cause an internet or grid outage in Australia?
It is a growing risk rather than a settled fact. AI data centres already draw enough power to strain the US grid, serious enough that the regulator NERC issued its highest level alert in May 2026, and a handful of hyperscale cloud providers that also run much of Australia's banking, retail, and telco infrastructure have already had shared outages, including the ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok outage in September 2026. None of that guarantees an AI caused outage here, but it is exactly the kind of concentrated, fast moving risk this kit is built to cover.
How much water do I need per person, per day?
Australian emergency services recommend 3 litres per person per day for drinking and basic hygiene, with a 3 day minimum reserve as your starting point. Treat this as a floor rather than a target, heat, illness and physical exertion all increase real needs.
Will my home phone still work if the internet is down?
Most home phones now run over the NBN or VoIP, so they go down with the internet. A charged mobile and a battery or crank AM/FM radio are your realistic backups, since terrestrial radio does not depend on either the internet or the mobile network.
How long do internet outages typically last in Australia?
Most localised outages resolve within hours to a couple of days, but the cascading effects, supermarket restocking, EFTPOS reliability, and supply chains catching up, can linger well beyond the outage itself. This kit is built around a 3 day baseline with room to extend.
Do I still need cash if shops say EFTPOS is back up?
Yes. Payment networks and stock systems can stay intermittent for days after an outage officially ends, and cash keeps working when a card reader does not.
Do I need to buy everything on this list at once?
No. If you are starting from nothing, prioritise a water filter, a way to store water, a charged power bank, and your first aid kit first, since those cover the fastest moving risks. Build out the rest of the 37 item list over a few pay cycles rather than in one expensive trip.
Related guides
This kit covers one scenario.
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