Macgyver,
Yep they run the spectrum. My wife is somewhere in the middle.

Really - I think what the guy needed to do was 1)Give her a BIG hug when he first got there, THEN talked "OK, lets go get out some stuff", and do it calmly - then if she gave him the "your getting off on this" - the trick is to keep your cool "Yep, I am! I'm getting to rescue My Beautiful Lady in Distress" - What has he done? 1)Made a joke of it in a high stress situation, 2)Complimented her, 3)Changed the atmosphere. Then ask for her HELP "can you hold X, can you do Y" ,even if he doesn't really need that help - call it a confidence building exercise

Heck - last blackout, I had to remind my wife where the flashlights are (she and the kids move them around), I unlocked the garage, took out some chemlites for her (she forgot we had them), showed her where the batteries are, pointed out that the gas BBQ worked fine, that the POTS phone still worked, I hooked the scanner to local police and Ham radio freqs, and then I went to do my shift helping out with ARES. Secure the home front FIRST, then go