A couple things I learned from the Nor'easters...

Electricity. We have a portable generator that we used to switch around between fridge/freezer/heaters and microwave (for sterilizing baby bottles). This is the first time I've had to actually use the generator for an extended period of time. We purchased it after one of the hurricanes years back, but got REAL lucky ever since and never lost power for more than a couple hours (isn't that how it always works?). I was surprised how long it ran on a tank before refilling. I was away at work for 10 hours while wife was home and it was still running with PLENTY left in the tank when I got home.

Speaking of that, I want to build a housing for it to keep noise down, with proper ventilation openings of course. That will be a job for the spring.

We used the fireplace the first night, but that can end up making our bedroom upstairs that much colder, and since it's easier to use the generator to keep one room warm, we will prob use the fireplace as an auxiliary heat/cooking source.

Water. Yes I know it's near or AT the top of every prep list, however we had a baby last October (our first), and hadn't realized how much extra water we would go through trying to wash and sanitize bottles. I just ordered 3 more 7-gallon containers. Since the containers are bath tub water, that will be primarily for toilet flushing, and bottled spring water will be for the baby. At no point did we even come close to running out of water, but I learned how much more we will go through now

Analog thermometer for the cellar (pipes).

Hot plate. Already had an electric kettle, but not the hot plate.

More Mountain House! yum.

Camping battery shower pump from bucket. It probably won't last a lifetime, but hopefully it will work for short periods of desperation and at least give us "running" water for rinsing bottles and such. The 7 gallon containers also have a spicket but redundancy.

We had plenty of food available, but I decided to take the opportunity to try a couple Mountain House meals from my kit that i hadn't had before. My quick reviews:

Lasagna: A little soupy (I used the correct amount of water). The taste was fine, meat was lacking a little, and it actually could have used some salt, surprisingly. Overall not bad. No complaints. I guess i'll empty the bag and let it steam off some of the liquid next time. 6.5 out of 10.

Beef Stew: Excellent. The only thing separating it from near-homemade was the size of the pieces (not to be confused with serving size). But I understand they have to be small and uniform in size to cook correctly, so it's completely forgiven. 9 out of 10.

Will probably pick up yet another gas can in the spring. Didn't have to make any extra trips to the gas station, but why not.

We were only out of power for a couple days, so it was no big deal, but it was the first time in years we had to deal with it. Despite all the preps we DID have (and in some cases way more than we needed), this was a nice quick lesson as to what was lacking, given our new situation in life (baby).

Did you guys on the eastern seaboard learn anything? Or maybe recent hurricane victims in the south?

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A couple things I learned from the Nor'easters...