Big Help Cooling when power's out
I live north of Tucson, in a little spot that has frequent power outages for 2-6 hours. Power in Mexico was more reliable than this! 8 outages so far this monsoon season.
In thinking about EMP and other long term power outages, with a limited budget I see see the minimal priorities as sources of light, battery for a radio, maybe cell phone, and, in summer in Tucson, Fans! I'll have to do without refrigeration, but I can manage fans. I can live without refrigeration, but the heat here can kill you on a hot day.
I have, for each of us, an O2Cool (from Walmart or internet) or other 12v fan (and some smaller spares). The 10" takes about 300mA low speed, so that's about 3 hours run time for each amp hour used. For batteries, I have an assortment: old retired 12v gel cells that have some life left in them, a similar car battery or two, some sets of rechargable AAs, a 12v (lithium) jumpstarter, also a 12v lead acid jumpstarter. (And I bought a new 9AH gell cell just for this.) I could "borrow" a car battery in an extended outage. Although it normally stays in a box, I have a solar panel and small solar charge regulator I can use to charge these in a long-term situation. Normally, power is back on in 2-6 hrs, and I just recharge from AC.
In extreme conditions, I can Multiply! the effectiveness of these small fans with a mister spray bottle to get through the worst hours. With temp 100 degrees, and a small fan blowing on you, a shot of mist in front of yourself, with the fan blowing it back on you, drops skin temp to 65-70 deg (I haven't measured, but it's chilly!) Drape yourself in a thin damp cloth (see below), while sitting in front of the fan, and multiply the cooling.
At night with a power outage, a 10" battery fan as above, properly positioned, can cool you enough to sleep. Without sleep you can't go. It makes a huge difference.
I also have some 7"? computer fans. They're little thin $6 12v and 5v and made for use inside desktop computers. They're about 100ma, dont move nearly as much air as the O2Cool, but blowing right on your face as you sit or work at a desk, they help a lot!
...And you need to solder up all your battery connectors, cords, clips, and adapters ahead of time! And test them.
Another source of 12v I haven't tried is to use the 10,000 mAH (fake value?) "power bank" and connect a 5v-to-12v adapter to the USB port. These little boards are available from china for about ?$2 or less. I think Banggood.com (maybe AliExpress.com?) has them. I can't check on internet at the moment.
Fans can save your life here!
Another thing I tried once in the peak of summer heat (110 degrees or more outdoors; being in-the-sun is worth maybe another 20 degrees...) - as an experiment, I draped myself in a piece of cloth like a thin blanket or a small tablecloth. The cloth had been soaked, then wrung out. Wearing that, part of it draped over my head, like you'd do for warmth in cold weather, ... I found I could chop cactus and bushes in 110 degrees, in the sun, and be comfortably cool! The drips were annoying...
Which also means if you had the water, you could wear long sleeves and long pants and a headdress and spray yourself a lot and go right on through the heat if you had to.
I've read that, in the cavalry days (1860s) the only cooling available in troop barracks was by hanging a wet blanket over the door and window. Evaporation cooled it some. In those days houses were built with thick 12-16" adobe walls, which stop and capture heat during the day, release it during the night. The modern equivalent is thick concrete or block walls, which do some of the same thing.
The heat is a challenge!
..And keep yourself hydrated too.