Your freezer actually works better if is fuller, so there is probably room for several gallons/2 liters of frozen water for your ice box source unless you have just stocked up a side of beef or something.

Chest freezers are better for this than uprights. The bottom layer of my chest freezer has several gallons of water jugs – swaped out whenever I defrost. Keeps the food up where I can reach it, acts as the ‘emergecy cooling’ if the power goes out and is a secondary source of drinking water in the event of a power outage more than a couple of days.

Hand fans (like the old timey ones you used to get in church) are a godsend for a summer power outage. A cord of wood for the winter *G* – watch the ashes – a co-worker had a house fire when some ‘live’ ashes were dumped in the trash can! Lampoil and old fashioned lamps are safer than candles – learn how to trim the wicks.

Maybe you don’t think I need one in Pensacola, but in my neck of the woods, it was a life saver. “Knowing what you’re doing” is as simple as operating a basic lawnmower so long as you don’t overload the circuits, and most have circuit breakers these days so you can’t overload them.

I spent $1,000 on my 6,500 watt beauty. Today it sits in my garage with Stabil in its tank and a trickle charger on its battery (push button starter). Glad to have it.

A quart-per-day-per-person of drinking water will keep you alive, but a gallon per day is more realistic, especially in your warm-weather scenario here.

Power outages often disable the electric pumps running your municipal water system… extra water lets you manually flush your toilet. Otherwise, basic sanitation quickly becomes a very big problem in a house/apartment.

Extra water for a simple sponge/bucket bath is almost a necessity after a couple of summer days. Here in Florida, frequent experience with Hurricanes teaches you what’s ‘really’ important when the power goes out for many days.

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Refrigeration & ice-boxes are a luxury… and low priority. Most American homes have enough edible foodstuffs laying around to easily last a week. Healthy adults can function OK for several days with no food at all. Average home refrigerators will keep their contents cool for 24-48 hours; frozen food will defrost, but that helps keep the rest of the fridge cool. {… few people have xtra room in their freezers for: ” ten or more two liter bottles or half gallon milk containers filled with water”}

Generators are more hassle than they’re worth for short-term power outages. Unless you know what you’re doing, operating them & storing enough gasoline presents significant usage & safety problems. Most people can get by with just a flashlight/candle for a couple of days. TV/PC’s/Cellphones can wait ’til the power comes back on. You’ve got a nice radio & big battery in your car… if you want to listen to the weather/news report. Regular telephones usually work because they use independent DC electric power from the phone company wires.

Unless you have a big backyard & shovel — keep a jug or two of Clorox bleach and some heavy duty plastic trash bags… as a basic toilet option. Local sewers can back-up and be unusable– because they also usually rely on electric pumps to keep things moving thru the sewer pipes.

Relax, your great-grandparents would laugh at the things we pampered Americans consider daily necessities.

I also have a car jump box that has an inverter built-in. Comes in real handy in the summertime to run a fan to keep me cool at night, so I can sleep.

Look for my post on voluntary “Off the grid” living next week.

We missed out on this power outage here as we were on a road trip to Atlanta! One thing I’d never been prepared until it occurred to learn how to disconnect the garage door! Now, I’ll have to find out or you should show me how when we meet next.

This is an area I definitely struggle with, as I never feel the need to prepare for emergencies until it is too late. Living in a larger city, I think our power goes out less frequently than it might in a rural area.

I love that you were able to spend some quality time with your wife! Sometimes it takes a few “emergencies” like the power going out to refocus on each other. I know that for my fiancee and I, we have to plan some “dark” nights where we don’t turn anything on, just so we can reconnect.

Looking forward to hearing more from you.

About 10 years ago we had a huge ice storm. It knocked out our power for 6 days and we had to camp out in the den and keep a fire going. It was so cold. We even cooked meals over the fire (boy scouts to the rescue).

We never thought of getting a generator but my dad got a kerosene heater after the whole fiasco. Naturally we never needed it again. We stayed in touch with the world using batteries and a flashlight/radio that ran on solar and a hand crank.