A Better Answer in the Dark

A Better Answer in the Dark

Gary Wells has spent much of his life thinking about what can go wrong before it happens.

As a hydrographic surveyor, he works offshore supporting oil infrastructure near Newfoundland, helping position underwater vehicles and send telemetry between vessels. Before that, he was an electronics technician working on fishing sonars, radars, and offshore cable ships. Over the years, his work has taken him from the oil fields to fiber optic cable projects around the world.

It is technical work, but it is also work built on preparation.

“Offshore, you always do risk assessments,” Gary says. “You’re always looking at what may happen, what you can do to mitigate any of the problems.”

That way of thinking follows him home to Nova Scotia.

Gary describes himself as reliable and dependable. If he says he is going to do something, he does it. At home, that might mean helping friends and family with projects. Offshore, it means solving problems in harsh conditions. During a storm, it means thinking clearly about what needs power first.

In Nova Scotia, that kind of mindset matters.

Weather That Can Turn Quickly

Living in Nova Scotia means living with weather that changes across the year. Gary sees winter nor’easters, summer hurricanes moving up the East Coast, wet heavy snowfall, strong rainstorms, and outages that can last far longer than people expect.

“Living in Nova Scotia, we get all sorts of weather year-round,” he says. “You never know what bad weather could be coming.”

The town where Gary lives is relatively protected because it sits near a power hub. But outside town, where some of his family lives, the risk is higher. Trees, wind, aging infrastructure, and rural power lines can turn a storm into a multi-day outage.

Gary remembers one December nor’easter that brought strong winds and knocked out power for five days in freezing temperatures. His family made do with a kerosene heater and candles, but the experience stayed with him.

When power goes out in rural areas, it is not just the lights that stop working. Food can spoil. The Internet goes down. For homes on wells, even water access can become complicated because the pump depends on electricity.

So Gary prepares.

He watches the weather. He checks outage maps. He thinks about what needs to stay running. And when he started looking for a backup power solution, he wanted something that could cover the essentials without having to run a generator nonstop.

Choosing a Backup He Could Trust

Gary first discovered Jackery through YouTube. He was not looking at it as a “prepper” purchase. He was doing what he usually does: researching, comparing, checking quality, and looking for a solution that made practical sense.

He considered other brands, including cheaper options, but he paid attention to reliability, reviews, certifications, and whether the products were actually suitable for sale in Canada.

“I did my due diligence,” Gary says.

The Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus stood out because it offered the capacity he wanted for home backup. Gary wanted something large enough to support an extended outage, especially overnight, without constantly worrying about whether the system would run out too quickly.

“What made me pick the Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus was, in an extended power outage, I wanted something that could last throughout the night without worrying,” he says.

Today, Gary usually keeps his Jackery charged to around 80%. When he sees a storm coming, he brings it up to 100%. During an outage, his priorities are simple: fridge, freezer, and internet router first. Phones and tablets can be charged afterward, but protecting food and keeping communication open come first.

For Gary, Jackery is not an abstract backup plan. It is the center of his storm preparedness.

“Having the Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus for when storms hit gives me 100% peace of mind to know that with a click of a button, we’re up and going again,” he says.

The Call From the Restaurant

One major rainstorm gave Gary a chance to use his Jackery in a way he had not expected.

The storm knocked out power across much of southwestern Nova Scotia. At home, Gary immediately powered up his Jackery and plugged in his fridge and freezer.

Then, about an hour later, his sister-in-law called.

She manages a restaurant. The power was out. The restaurant was closed. But upstairs, a wedding rehearsal reception was supposed to begin in about an hour. The food was already prepared. Family from both sides was on the way. The room was getting dark.

The first question was simple: could Gary bring lights?

His answer was better.

“I can do better,” Gary remembers saying. “I can bring the Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus over.”

He loaded up the unit, protected it from the rain, and brought it to the restaurant. There, the Jackery powered the upstairs lights, downstairs lights, fans, internet, and stereo system. Music played. The room stayed lit. Guests arrived and saw something they did not expect: a reception continuing even though the grid was down.

“As far as they were aware, everything was on,” Gary says.

The power came back after two or three hours. By then, the reception had already been saved. Gary estimates the Jackery had only used around 10% to 12% of its charge.

“It saved the day,” he says.

Gary is careful about the wording. It was the wedding rehearsal reception, not the wedding reception itself. But the moment still mattered. All the food had been prepared. Families had gathered. The outage could have ruined the evening.

Instead, the lights stayed on.

A Practical Kind of Preparedness

Gary does not talk about preparedness in dramatic terms. For him, it is practical. It is about knowing what matters first, having a system ready, and being able to respond when something unexpected happens.

Owning Jackery has not changed his values. It has given him a better way to act on them.

“Owning it, for me, is the preparedness,” he says. “That’s the main reason for getting it—the preparedness of power, which modern society lives on.”

He is already thinking about how to improve his setup. Solar panels are high on his list, along with a smart transfer switch that would make home backup more convenient than running power cords through the house. He also sees value in a smaller Jackery unit for more portable uses.

His partner has already imagined one: taking a smaller unit down to the lighthouse on “Dumping Day,” the start of lobster season, when boats head out early in the morning, and using it to make coffee for people watching from shore.

That idea makes sense for Gary. Power can be an emergency backup. It can also be comfort, community, and the ability to show up for other people.

Whether offshore, at home, or helping family during a storm, Gary’s instinct is the same: think ahead, solve the problem, and bring what is needed.

Sometimes that means keeping the fridge and freezer running.

Sometimes it means keeping a family reception from going dark.

And sometimes, when someone asks if he can bring lights, it means answering with