Actually they weren’t cooking outdoors. But it was early September in MS and the temps were in the 90’s. I defy you to cook indoors in that heat with no electricity and the windows closed. They were using those little heat packs that come with MRE’s.
The zombies won’t get you. Heat stroke might though... :P
I have operating fans in a power outage. Won’t burn up in closed house. Did it that way after Ike, no problem. At that time, I didn’t have screens for my outside doors and mosquitoes were heavy so kept the doors closed all the time. I now have screens for those so can keep them open now when not cooking. After Ike, during those 5 days without power, people had food they bought for that so if I had screens, I could have kept them open. It is the long term power outage when people have run out of food that would necessitate cooking inside and closed up.
You can dampen your face, chest, arms, with water and turn on a battery fan and get cool fast.