Here's your pre-storm preparedness checklist: batten down the hatches, stock up on water, and eat some ice cream.
Ice cream?! As strange as it sounds, this might be one of the best (and tastiest!) ways to tell if your freezer defrosted during a power outage.
This tip comes from a friend who lives in New Orleans, so I trust that he knows his business when it comes to storms, hurricanes, and power outages!
You actually only get to eat half the pint of ice cream before the storm. Instead of eating straight down, eat from only one side of the pint container and leave the other side un-touched. Put the pint back in the freezer and wait out the storm.
If the ice cream is still mounded to one side after the power comes back on, your freezer didn't thaw too much and your frozen foods are still good. But if the surface is smooth and level, that means that you lost power long enough for the ice cream to thaw completely - along with the rest of your freezer contents. Best to throw those foods out and re-stock.
My New Orleans friend says that something like this ice cream trick is a particularly good idea if you won't be at home during the storm and come back not knowing if you lost power or for how long.
Do you have any other tricks for telling if your freezer defrosted during a power outage?
Related: Cooking in a Hurricane? 5 Tips for Staying Safe and Well-Fed
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If you're concerned about calories, you can achieve the same result without eating a bunch of ice cream.
Freeze some water in a small container, and then (once it's solid) put a penny on top. If the penny is frozen into the water when you come back, your freezer defrosted. If the penny is still sitting on top, then no worries!
24 hours prior to Hurricane Irene, I put a case of water bottles into my freezer. 40 hrs without power, nothing defrosted, my fridge compartment got up to 50 by the end but I had a minimum of dairy in there. And 50 is temp of most old fashioned root cellars (and caves) so it's fine for a lot of stuff. We moved a couple frozen bottles so they were next to the milk in the fridge (or could have put them in a cooler).
Every emergency planning site I've read says items in a full freezer are safe for 48 hours.
In Irene's aftermath my nephew & his neighbors had a big block party and cooked/grilled their freezer stuff to use it up. They finally got their power back after another 3 days, so it was a good plan.
If you still use ice trays, after the water has frozen turn the tray upside down. You'll know if your freezer has defrosted.
My mom's trick was to always keep one ice cube in a jar. If the power went out the ice cube would melt and then refreeze when the power turned back on.
All of these ice tricks are great, but none of them involve eating ice-cream...
didn't really have a plan before yesterday, but when the power went out, I was pleased to find ice cubes that I had in a bag still in ice cube form. phew. was dreading tossing contents of our full freezer!