We have the canned goods, the dry goods, the water filter, the ammo, an emergency trunk filled with everything you can think of—drugs, first aid, lanterns, etc.
But I’m sitting here in the dark for hours after a transformer blew in our small village. Totally failed our dry run. I can’t get the lanterns working. Our batteries seem corrupted and I don’t have the right kind of batteries in some instances. And I need a lantern that uses another kind of energy too.
Big fail! I’m off to Home Depot when the lights come on to truly get prepared. Glad this happened today. I thought we were in good shape. Didn’t make it an hour.
"water filter"?
What about water? This is by far the most important item. I'm on a well and have no generator big enough that can power the well. I keep 30 gallons in 5 gallon "cubes" on hand at all times. They came in handy when our well failed one weekend and more recently when the Houston derecho left us without power for 72 hours.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S1RACNY
Additionally, if you know something is coming, fill your bathtubs with water. These can be used for bathing. I wouldn't get into them to bathe, but I'd dip out enough of that water to shower with in some manner.
My father needs a 240V to power his pump for the well (way too deep).
That said, I believe a few solar panels & a really good inverter should get an hour a day of power in the worst case emergency. Not ideal, but it should get them enough for himself & the neighbors to keep hydrated. He finally got a propane generator that kicks on & will keep that water flowing. The solar is just a redundancy.
https://www.harborfreight.com/rv-ready-50-amp-inverter-generator-parallel-kit-58374.html may work. I need to see what my brother ultimately decided to get for them.