First of all, I'd like to clarify that I've been a proponent of AA cells - for EVERYTHING - for a long time, and have worked very hard to get the stuff I consider important for emergency preparedness to run on AA - and only AA cells. All lighting is LED/AA based, for example, as are the emergency radio receivers. However, my point in the stock of extra batteries was based in part on experiences we had down along the delaware river during the floods of 2004, 2005 and 2006. Although a relatively short-term situation, there were logistical challenges with resupply due to the river bridges being closed, and much to my surprise, we ran into a few situations where various devices - like garage door openers - went dead and there was nowhere to get replacement batteries.

I happen to think that one of the most important things to have is ready access to information, for example, I routinely grab a whole copy of Wikipedia.org and I have about 200 Megabytes of eBooks of all kinds, from the PDF versions of the service manuals for my vehicles and power equipment to top and other types of maps to various medical reference books. Thus, for me, keeping my computers healthy, happy and their BIOS functioning is part of my plan. I always have a spare laptop of some sort set up and ready to act as a reference library/ communications center. So I tend to think of the needs of communications gear too.