It is surprising how many items you use each and every day that require electricity. What is more surprising is how you seem to forget what you can and cannot use during a power outage, such as a garage door opener. During a power outage, you must manually open and close the garage door. An emergency release cord on the garage door arm opens the trolley to allow you to disengage the garage door from the opener. Once the power is restored to the garage door opener, you must reconnect the opener to the door.