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.
Yeah, I don't see how OP thinks this is a fail. At least this was a temporary outage and there is still time to correct any deficiencies. We were fortunate enough to have a well in the back yard, so I bought one of those old timey hand pumps. My brother asked why I didn't put in an electric pump (he thinks everything is hunky dory and will continue to be hunky dory, that sweet summer child). I'm hoping I'll be able to provide water for the neighborhood, they seem to not be animalistic and maybe I can barter for essentials that I might have overlooked.
Cool. My husband thinks he can use the generator on the well, but I found a well bucket on Lehmans a few years ago and bought one. https://www.lehmans.com/product/lehmans-own-galvanized-well-bucket/ Every person nearby our house has a well.