my evacuation plan did not change for Irma... I had planned to shelter in place through a CAT 3 and evacuate a short distance to a post Andrew code residence of a relative for a CAT4 or 5...luckily Irma was around the projected 90mph when it reached me here on the west coast of Florida.. had my plans been for an out of state evacuation, I was faced with a fiat accompli, as by the time the track changed to west coast landfall the evacuation north/south routes available to me (mainly I75)were jammed, and fuel not available....we are limited in the direction of evacuation routes...

I have two gasoline powered generators... a Honda 3500w unit and a smaller 2200w Chinese inverter generator... I did not have either for the long 9 day outage in 2004... they are definitely my plan for the future...water was not interrupted, and power on in about 3 days... no problem with food or LED lighting... food was cooked on a single burner propane stove with a water bath used to heat soup in its own container to help with cleanup, and cook hot dogs for lunch...

my 12v deep cycle battery let me down... it had been on a float charger, and when I placed it on a regular charger, it indicated a short, so I was not able to use my portable TV... I ran the inverter generator to power the internet, TV, and ceiling fan for about 3 hours nightly... luckily the first powerless day was overcast, light rain, and cool....