Stormin Mormon wrote:
Take two thousand watts, and call me in the morning.

Please write some more, of how you coped with various things. We can
learn from your experience.

While you didn't ask me, I'll be glad to share some lessons learned.

I had a generator and five gallons of stabilized gas. That should, I
thought, get me through the onset of any disaster.

Then came Ike.

NO ELECTRICITY to over 2.1 million customers, including EVERY FRICKIN' GAS
STATION for sixty miles in any direction. The stations HAD gas, but no way
to get it to your tank! Even today, ten days after the hurricane, 34% of
customers in the Houston area (767,000 users, about 2.4 million people) are
without power.

Next hurricane, I'm gonna hoard gas, just like beer and strawberry
pop-tarts!

Strangely, our legislature passed a law mandating gas stations on evacuation
routes stock up to 85% capacity in advance of an impending emergency, but
the law says nothing about emergency power generation for these stations.

-------

There was at least one report of fatalities due to running the generator in
an attached garage. Paramedics found a family of four dead and a generator
with an empty gas tank in the garage. That's four people dead out of tens of
thousands who used generators. Expect legislation mandating CO detectors to
be sold with every generator (like trigger-locks on pistols).

I had mine running outside, in the rain and wind. Inclement weather didn't
bother it a bit. Remember, these things are DESIGNED to be used in hostile
environments - a little moisture or leaves or wind shouldn't bother the
sucker.

A side benefit of the generator being louder than the Hinges on the gates of
Hell is that the noise encourages the user to keep the door and windows in
its vicinity closed.