“We learned we were not prepared as we thought we were...”
Yes, you are exactly right. Our generator worked fine but I did find that most of the grocery stores did not have generators. You should smell the stink from the rotting produce/meat/etc... behind the shopping centers. I did learn a few things: our generator works approximately 12 hours per tank, you can make do with a window unit provided the doorways are blocked off with thick plastic and small/light meals did fine. I will say this though... I did become concerned for many folks without a generator. One afternoon, the ambulance took residents from neighborhood houses at least four times (that was just on our street). Not for infants or the sick/elderly... but for middle age people. Power outages, IMHO, are a bit easier during the Winter.
I agree that there is less loss due to winter outages. At least the frozen food isn’t lost. We lost two freezers full. The third one is in the cooler basement and was stuffed full, and we didn’t open the lid on it, so we think it will be fine as re-frozen food. It sure hurts to lose that much meat, etc.