Portable power supply options during hurricanes

With the possibility of Hurricane Irma striking Florida, a lot of people are stocking-up on supplies, including of course, batteries. The problem is that traditional batteries aren’t going to power your cell phone. That's why it may be important to get a portable charger to power your devices - and that's just the beginning.

Best Buy's Matt Adkins says the most obvious choice for power are USB chargers. They're battery packs that can recharge anything that connects with a USB cable, like your phone or tablet, several times.

“Anywhere from 1.5 to 12 charges depending on, obviously, some phones and some tablets will take different levels of charges, so there are different options there,” Adkins said.

Lots of cars these days come with USB chargers, but if yours doesn't you can power your devices with something called an inverter.

“You can actually plug that into a cigarette lighter and it gives you a standard wall outlet that you can charge something like a laptop on,” Adkins advised.

For your home, there's also a battery backup power supply that can juice laptops and modems for a while, too. “Anywhere from thirty minutes to, some of them will have up to six hours,” Adkins said.

James Brown, who was out with his family shopping for supplies, said these days, chargers are even more important than regular batteries.

“Let's be realistic, everyone has their phones on them, these days,” Brown said, “that's how I get most of my information, news updates, stuff like that. So it's extremely important.”

With all these options to choose from, if the storm hits and the power goes out, your devices can keep on going.