Batten down the hatches: Hurricane season is here, and meteorologists expect it to be a busy one. Already, the east coast has been battered by Tropical Storm Isias, which made landfall last week, causing floods, fires,
and tornadoes and killing at least nine people. Minus the horror of these more serious incidents, widespread power outages are a common side-effect of these massive late-summer storms—Isias left an estimated 1.4 million people in the northeast without power, which has yet to be restored in some areas even days later.
You never know if you are going to be one of the unlucky ones who loses power, but if you are away from home when the storm hits, there’s an easy way to check if you are still connected from afar—provided you own a smart device that links with an app on your phone.
We got the idea from Reddit user i4yopo, who points out that a smart device will obviously only be accessible from your phone if it is powered up and working at home. That means if you can connect to it while away, you know you won’t be coming home to a dark house, a fridge you can’t open, a stove that won’t work and, perhaps most crucially, a smart phone charger that won’t charge (but you’ll be okay
there, because you always keep a fully charged phone backup battery at home).
There are really no specific instructions to performing this hack, the mechanics of which will vary based on the type of smart device you own. Try dropping in on your Alexa, or checking the ambient temperature on your Nest,
or turning a light on and off with your Google Home. If it works, you’ve got the juice. If it doesn’t, you’ll know to stop to pick up dinner or a few extra candles on your way home.