You'd think people would learn

and prepare for when Momma Nature deals harshly with the infrastructure which makes their lives comfortable.

I mean, seriously. If you need electricity  to keep your home from freezing, have a spare method besides a fragile electric grid which can be damaged by ice and snow and wind. If you need electricity to keep your food from spoiling, same advice. You can get a generator for less than $500. That is likely about  the cost of the contents of your freezer and fridge. And what will it cost if you have to have your home fixed because your pipes freeze? (yeah,  insurance will (maybe) cover it, but you are still out the deductible.) End result, cheaper and less hassle to have the genny and a few gallons of gas. Personally I am thinking of buying one of these so that Midwest Chick can have some power until I get home and start the Lister diesel generator. I already stock both gas and diesel in fairly large quantity.


Which brings me to:

IF YOU KNOW that a significant storm is coming (and who in the US could fail to be aware of the fact, as the east coast based media trumpeted the fact for several days) FILL UP your gas tanks on your vehicle. Fill up your gas cans too. BEFORE the storm hits. Before the electricity that operates the gas pumps fails. Bother to prepare. Bother to think farther ahead than your next bowel movement.

For gods sake people, stop being sheep. Learn to take care of yourself (and your family), even if just for a few days. I'm not saying you should be prepared for the "Zombie Apocalypse" (but if you were, then you'd not have any issues with a mere power outage), but a little thought and preparation will take you a long way.If you have an all electric house, then you might want to plan for some other way to heat it, like a Kerosene heater or something, and maybe have some alternate method of cooking food, like a Coleman stove. 

Must be a "blue" thing. Seems like the less "blue" a state is, the more they are able to deal with things and the more they have preps to deal with issues like the above linked storm.

Have you checked your preps for the winter? Car stuff? Storm and blizzard preps? Power outage preps?

I have. I'm good for (no kidding) power outages of 40+ days, if I stretch it, more like 75.  I got food for longer than that. I don't expect you to have that kind of prep, but you SHOULD have some, say a week's worth or more. If you have them, then ya oughta check 'em.

If you haven't checked 'em, you should. Srsly