Hurricane Hermine passed through Tallahassee, Florida, late September 1st. This left the whole city including myself without electricity.
Major stores and gas stations were shut down, traffic lights and street lights were out. Homes and cars were crushed by trees. The city looked like a ghost town all Labor Day weekend, and the way everybody rushed in the same direction to load up on food and water made it seem like it was the Apocalypse. This was the first hurricane to touch Tallahassee in thirty years, no one was ready.
But reflecting on the whole thing, I learned the most important thing to have during a hurricane is company. So thank you to my other half. Having no air conditioning or lights for more than twenty four hours can make anyone irrational and crazy. We made it work. I wouldn't want to eat sandwiches by candlelight in an A/C-less house with anyone else. It was almost sad when the power came back on, we had just gotten comfortable outside looking up at the stars... something people used to do before television, internet, and cell phones.
Basically, all you really need in a power outage is someone you enjoy doing nothing with... but water bottles, snacks, and candles are nice, too.