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.
We often have transformers fail during lightning season. I have two AGM batteries, two photovoltaic panels, a charge controller and a "1500W" 220v inverter (actually only good for about 500 Watts). All computers are laptops that can be recharged from this system. Two automatic emergency lights with 12 hour batteries. Plenty of rechargeable LED torches. Two LED desk lamps that will run from the system.
Our Internet WiFi router with SIM also runs from the system.
We have 1000 litres of water in a tank on the roof - gravity-fed, no pump needed. And our cooker/hob runs on bottled gas. We also have a wood stove and plenty of wood.
And at least a week's supply of food, plus we get eggs and vegetables from neighbours.