A wide variety of natural disasters can cause long-term power
outages. Things like tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, lightning,
ice storms and blizzards can take out the power for hours or
days at a time. Even something as simple as a blown transformer
or a car running into a utility pole can knock out the
electricity in an entire neighborhood for a day or two. We are
all dependent on electricity, so a power outage of more than a
few minutes becomes pretty annoying. As the duration of a power
failure stretches beyond an hour, there are more severe problems
that can cause things to get expensive or dangerous: - During
the winter, a power failure normally disables your home's
heating system. As the house cools, (depending on where you
live) it can become uninhabitable. In addition, frozen pipes can
cause thousands of dollars in damage. - A power failure means
that refrigerators and freezers stop running. In the summer,
frozen food melts and can make a real mess. If you have invested
in a side of beef, losses can