Paul810, good post. I would like to add a few thing I learned. I live 5 miles from the ocean and was without power for 10 days. I have a gen and all is ok on that end. Lessons learned. 1. Head lamp with push button was indispensable, for chores around the house when not using gen. I do not run it for long periods of time. 2. Several small lights to hang around neck of Wife Daughter and Mother. They called them their storm jewelry. Put them on at 4:30 and kept on person till morning. 3. And this is the big one, a network. I do alot of fishing for striped bass. (surf casting) along the costal NJ waters. A fishing buddy lives in So. Western NJ and was not affected nearly as much as I was. We were on the phone and he could lock in supplies that were in very high demand here and kept me posted of situation in the rest of the state. While there were long, long, long, .............. long lines for gas. I drove to the west side of the state, had a nice hot meal at a restaurant, filled my truck and lots of gas cans with no lines. This was not a "hope it works out" trip. My buddies intell was trusted and spot on. Net result, Wife and I got out of dodge for a spell, got some supplies at a slower pace, filled gas and was back home using only about 2 gal of a 30 gal tank in my truck.