Well, writing down what you still know would be better than letting yourself eventually forget everything.

If my assumptions are correct, then both the power outage and the announcment of the people being replaced are distractions. The real target of the town is our memories. If so, then perhaps it seeking to further integrate us into this place by slowly removing our memories? They have already removed some of our physical attributes or personal items, so this seems to match with their previous behavior.