Please read this article from SurvivalBlog.com
It is the experience of only 13 days without power in Canada, this winter.
http://survivalblog.com/the-frog-in-a-slowly-heating-pot-by-n-h/This started with simple bad weather and escalated into a SHTF situation.
Note that the Canadian army relief effort did not arrive until after the fact...
Food for thought?