Another potentially useful tool — though one that isn’t useful on all days — is a solar cooker. If you have sunny days (e.g., California, Florida), the cooker can be used to heat canned foods and possibly even to sterilize water (you’d want to check a time-temperature chart to see how long to hold the water at certain temperatures, however, before relying on this).

My office was on the same power grid as a hospital, so we got electricity at work again right away. (Thank goodness, right? How awful would it have been to miss work?) I moved all my freezer stuff to the freezer at work (mostly things I had already cooked, like chili), so I had prepared food for lunch.

But in the evening, after I had eaten all the cheese and perishables in the fridge, I ate peanut butter and tuna, which were the only non-perishables I had in my house that also required no preparation.

I got really sick of peanut butter and tuna after that. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve had canned tuna since – and Hurricane Elvis was in 2003.