> refrigeration is the crux

Amen. We were lucky to have our power out for "only" two 12-hour periods (on successive days) in our last outage (heat wave overloading local capacity).

The one cheap mitigation I thought of was that if the power outage risk was elevated, to put couple of extra gallon jugs in the freezer to freeze beforehand - turning the refrigerator into an icechest. Also, pre-emptively eating the food most at risk.

> Many thanks to all for your helpful suggestions on this and other matters.

You're welcome! As Doug pointed out - conserving enough power for emergency communications is key. GPS usage burns through battery power pretty quickly. I put my phone in "airplane mode" and "off" when it isn't needed, or do a complete shutdown.