A few years ago (maybe as many as ten) we had a main transformer go out and we were about three days without power. Major big time outage. Fortunately, the restuarant where my son worked had power and let us store the stuff from our refrigerator and freezer there until power was restored. :)

Back in '94 we had a major ice storm that knocked out power to some people for a week or more...my mother's house was one of them, which is this house I live in now...she was able to rough it out by staying in the den, which has a gas log fireplace, & relying on her poor country girl background, so she knew how to survive without the modern conveniences...the downside was that she never threw anything out, my brother told me he was afraid to eat anything at her house...I was living a few miles away at the time, & I was greatly inconvenienced as well...I lost cable service for over an hour...