I'm just back from a friend's place in southern Maryland (on the Patuxent River near the Bay) where the power was off from Saturday (Irene) to Friday. I spent six days there. We think a small tornado or some other isolated wind event cut the straight-line swath of damage on the roads/utility poles leading out of the neighborhood.

TV cable back on two days later and it was just yesterday (Monday) that cable Internet functioned. The landline telephone still wasn't working when we returned to DC (Day 9 after Irene hit).

They'd had a backup generator (propane-powered) professionally installed a couple years ago after a blizzard. I just e-mailed them to ask precisely what make-model it is. It runs a lot quieter than the portable generators that ran at neighbors' homes (another reason to have earplugs around).

The propane was topped off the day before Irene hit. Six days later, the gauge showed 35% left. That ran the septic pump, well pump, sump pump, fridge-freezer full-time, ceiling fans, lights (too many, in hindsight), just-in-time hot water heater, washer-dryer, laptop computers, flat-screen TV for one movie each night. Fortunately, the house is on the water and heavily shaded (none of those trees fell, thankfully) so it was comfortable without a/c.

Did not use the stove/oven, microwave or other kitchen appliances other than the coffee maker. We cooked on the gas grill outside. Augmented lights with candle lanterns and other candles (carefully).

At the 35% point of propane storage -- and the roads still impassable to a propane delivery truck -- we began to be more conservative. Filled a huge Coleman x-treme cooler with 40 lbs of ice ($5 at BJ's) and sodas and bottled water to avoid opening the fridge and allowing shutting off the generator more frequently and longer. By the way, this Coleman cooler is one that I happened to have in the back of my Element. I often keep a cooler in there and threw this big one in for this trip - just in case.

We spent an hour at Starbucks in the mornings and evenings to use the Wi-Fi.

My friends now own their own 150-quart Coleman x-treme marine cooler.

Love the backup generator but it is expensive to operate and if the roads are impassable for fuel refill to run it then at some point you'll need to backup the backup if you're not real stingy in its usage.

The biggest bummer of the power outage for us was that the boat lifts didn't work so we couldn't lower the boats back into the water.

So we enjoyed low-tech, unpowered days at the beach. Would have been a lot more unpleasant during July's month-long heat wave.