Yes, I had to drive around quite a bit in order to check our rental properties, get gas and fuel from our equipment yard, etc. The first couple days were very difficult, most roads were blocked with trees and down lines. Traffic lights didn't work, leading to a lot of confusion (and accidents) at busy intersections. Street lights didn't work making it extremely dark and difficult to see obstacles at night. The highways seemed to be the best bet, if you could get to them. Even then it was slow going and parts of some highways were heavily flooded.

My neighbor completely gave up on using his car, instead deciding to use his bicycle. He would strap a gas can to the pannier rack and off he went. Not sure if he ever made it back with any gas, but I know he got around pretty well like that.


As far as cooking goes, we couldn't use our stove, which is electric and not plumbed into the transfer panel. Our cook tops are natural gas and worked fine as long as you lit them with the kitchen lighter/matches (as the ignition system relies on electricity to spark the gas). We made a lot of soups, stews, and chili. With the generator, we still had our freeze and microwave, so we made a few tv dinners too. One day we plugged in the toaster and actually popped a circuit breaker on the transfer panel. Never realized it, but that thing must draw 1500+ watts (12+ amps) at startup.

For the first couple days not a single restaurant was open. They had no power and then with no power their freezers and refrigerators went south, requiring them to throw out almost all their food. The first places I saw back in business were a pizza place one town over and a McDonalds. Wait time for a pizza was 3 1/2 hours takeout. The line at McDonalds looked like the gas lines.

They say to have enough food on hand for three days, that's probably the bare minimum. I would say have enough food on hand for at least 5-7 days. I think by the fourth or fifth day we were able to get pizza with a reasonable wait time.




In the states, we're only required to have over-current protection on our circuit panels. Certain individual outlets are required to be GFCI outlets (RCD), but only in certain areas (like the bathroom, the garage, outside, within so many feet of a plumbing fixture, etc). A lot of pre-1970's homes don't have them. I'm not sure if my cousin has them, I'll have to look next time I'm over there.



I thought that would have been true after hurricane Irene, when it seemed like everyone bought a generator. But then I found that a lot of people who didn't use them or only used them for a short while turned around and sold them on Craigslist/in the newspaper/ebay/etc. I guess they figured they wouldn't ever need them again.

So now, they all went back out and bought generators yet again for Sandy. It will be interesting to see how many hold onto them and whether or not Craigslist and the like will have a glut of used ones for sale.



That's basically it. Five days before the storm it became difficult to find things like generators and pumps. Now, 15+ days later, they're still nearly impossible to find.

If you don't have it two-weeks before the storm, don't plan on having it during the storm and after the storm....unless you just happen to get lucky.