Do you have a plan? A simple one for a day or two? A more complex one? I can tell you the story about a Florida law firm that in advance of Hurricane Ivan did this ... covered servers with a plastic bag in case of water damage, then came back after the storm and found that the roof had caved in and destroyed them all.
For folks in St. Louis, I am sure they thought that a thunderstorm would not render the city helpless. For others planning is a two or three day matter if Hurricane warnings go up.
Most have plans, but do you have at least a basic fall back plan when the power is out for a day or two? It's a pain the ass to deal with, and it's worse when it comes upon you with little warning. I went through it once, and vowed to limit the pain when it came around again.
Get a Generator: I have a generator, a Honda XP4400E that costs about $400. It can take care of the house and essential items like a fridge. It costs less than two nights at the Ritz Carlton, where we stayed during a past, city wide outage.
My tailgating generator also is a backup for home or work, a Honda EU1000i (used). I keep a five gallon gas can in storage as well. The total cost for the two generators was less than $1,500. To me the XP4400E ($400) was a no brainer.
Expecting a power outage I bought matchlight charcoal (20 pounds of it) and an extra propane tank. Total cost is under $50 for both. I've had to resort to one or the other just a handful of times, once when an unprepared neighbor came over asking for the extra propane.
Are you prepared for even a a two day power outage?
