The offical hurricane survival question and answer thread

LED candles (think the ones that go inside a jackolantern), solar lights, or glowsticks make a nice pathway to the bathroom.

Tune your radio ahead of time to a local news/talk station (may want to write down the numbers and stick it on the radio itself!)

Fill your freezers as full as possible using water jugs to fill the space (but don't overfill the water jugs!) A full freezer stays cold longer. Ditto for fridge.

If you can, fill enough jugs to also keep a cooler, then pull only what you need for that day out of the freezer and into the cooler. This way you're not opening and closing the freezer more than once a day.

Some power tool kits come with a flashlight that runs off the same battery as, say, your sawsall. So charge all the batteries!

Bust out the thermoses- if you lose power, and take the time to percolate coffee or tea, the thermos will hold the heat in longer.

I'm happy to use this as a dry run. It will accomplish a lot for me, getting my spouse more on board with buying a generator, for one.... I can stock up "under the radar" since everyone else is buying fuel canisters, batteries, and shelf stable food... I can give some of my skills a good workout... Not to mention some of our tools (DH is taking a walkie talkie to work so that we can stay in touch without cell phones)... I've also got a stack of books to read- Dare to Prepare has sat in the stack for a month now.