Anyway, in 2008 I lost power for 15 days during hurricane Ike. It was an interesting scenario I'd never been in or considered. I still had to go to work 30 minutes away (Houston) which consumed gas, having to go to work during this might sound bad; but it was the ONLY place in miserably hot September in Houston where I could charge my phone and sit in an air conditioner because we had power. To buy gas I had to find a gas station and they all had insane lines (hours) if you could even find a gas station that was open AND had gas. All of those gas stations were 30+ minutes away from my house. Nothing in my part of the city (Heights, which is nearby downtown) was open at all. This might not have been an issue for some, but I had lived in the city for about a month and knew nothing but my neighborhood and now I couldn't use GPS or look up anything unless I was at work.
I had never really considered that some emergency like that would happen and that there still had to remain some normalcy of life (like waking up and going to work). I actually had to have my friend mail me food/items a few times because I was still able to get packages, I just had no idea when power in my area would be restored.
It was definitely an eye opener. Also property theft was incredibly rampant. There were times I had to sit on my balcony and watch my neighbors places because so many people left town and looters were looking for places with no people present. If you saw the popular "You loot I shoot :(" picture of the destroyed house from Houston during Ike, that was a block from my house.
I remember after about a 10 days the CVS down the block from me opened up as I was driving by. I ran in and left with about 10 boxes of Gushers and other random fruit chew type foods because all of their perishables were bad and candy was all that was left. But at least I had something to eat.
edit: TC Jester/Washington you loot I shoot image; https://xnomad.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/17-09-08_1931.jpg...