Sshhh...ix-nay on the Brussel sprouts! Lol.
I don’t rehearse - I use my power sources every time a hurricane comes through here and takes out power. That was the reason I began to prepare in the first place. After Ike and power was out, I had a water source that would last, a TV that worked, a phone that worked, radios that worked with one that has TV stations on it to listen to...
Nicely done. I coulda/shoulda during Sandy :-(
When Sandy happened, I thought of what I had that could help those people. There was an elderly lady in a high rise and she had no water or food or light and had to go down many flights of stairs just to get water. I so wanted to be there to help her.
Normalcy bias is so strong, one thinks nothing will happen because everything is just fine now. Going through the aftermath of a hurricane will get your attention and many people store vital supplies AFTER their first one. They can't imagine it until they are in it.
That is the same thing that will happen if the grid goes down and it's too late to prepare AFTER it happens.
We are the victims of progress. Our parents and/or grandparents canned food all the time, we don't, we go buy it when we feel like it and it only lasts a few days - no problem, the store is not far away. Our parents/grandparents raised animals, they had hand fans but those were fans. They had a wood stove and a wood pile. We flip a switch for heat and turn on the gas or electric stove.
When I prepared, I took myself back to the days I spent in my grandmother's house with no electric power and they lived well. The majority of our population has never lived in those times so they can't draw from that experience to recreate it.
I hope you are in better condition with preps than you were before Sandy.