I called out.

I couldn’t see anything as I entered my house. The power was still off after the morning’s big storm.

“I’m in here.”

I followed the sound of my wife’s voice and saw her sitting in the kitchen next to a candle.

She hadn’t been home long either. And she told me she couldn’t find any flashlights – at least none with batteries.

That’s when I remembered a Christmas gift that was upstairs: a novelty flashlight that doesn’t need batteries. You turned a hand crank for about a minute to get 30 minutes of light.

“Look. One of the kids got this for me,” I said after finding it.

“No, I got it for you,” my wife said, smiling.

Hand-crank radios

Since that big March 12 storm, I hadn’t thought too much about emergency weather appliances until earlier this week.

“I think we should get one of these radios,” my wife said, pointing out an emergency hand-crank radio featured in the new L.L. Bean catalog.

I told her I’d look into it.

I called Paula Phillips, Douglas County’s Emergency Preparedness director, to find out what she thought about hand-crank emergency radios.

“I actually have one in my disaster kit,” Phillips said.

Phillips said her hand-crank radio picks up AM and FM radio signals. During severe weather that’s where any local emergency messages, such as tornado warning or all-clear messages, will be broadcast, she said..

“I would really recommend it,” Phillips said.

All-in-one emergency tool

Most of the models I found online were similar to models made by the Eton Corp, which made them for L.L. Bean and others.

The Eton models have some extras built in you can use in case of emergencies – almost all have a built-in flashlight. And some feature a red emergency flashing light, a siren or even a wireless phone charger.

They also have several power options. You can plug the radio into a wall outlet or use three AA batteries, like a conventional radio.

Or you can make your own power – just turn the hand crank to power up a rechargeable Ni-MH battery.

The biggest differences in the Eton models (which also includee the Grundig line) are the radio tuners.

Weather junkies will like the Eton FR300. It picks up not only AM and FM radio stations and VHS-TV channels, but also gets the NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric) weather channels.

The Eton FR250 seems geared more toward an international market. It gets AM and FM signals, but can also pick up hundreds of shortwave radio channels from around the world.

I found several other hand-crank radios online.

One company, Freeplay, sells not only hand-crank radios, but also hand-crank flashlights and small generators to power up cell phone or run small appliances.

Getting the juice

A commercial came on during “The Gilmore Girls.”

“Let me show you the new radio,” I told my wife.

I had bought one from RadioShack, which was similar to Eton’s FR250.

I hooked her cell phone to the radio’s charger. And that feature impressed her – her cell phone had lost power during the March 12 storm.

I started turning the crank. The cell phone’s screen showed it was in charge mode.

She smiled when the phone was fully charged.

“Now we have information . . .” she said, putting her hand on the top of the radio. She picked up her cell phone.

” . . . And we have communication. This is a great thing.”

She went back to the TV show.

I started wondering about what other emergency appliances are out there.

I guess it’s not too early to crank out a Father’s Day wish list.