Preparedness Begins At Home  Jamie Kitman Tim Marrs  Driving
around the other day, I kept forgetting that my car had
electrical power even though it had gobs of the stuff. That made
it quite unlike my home, which, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, was
dark as night even during the day. As an unexpected ancillary
drawback to the many others that beset one's microenvironment
when extreme weather events come calling, I suddenly found
myself forgetting to employ useful things like directional
signals, windshield wipers, and headlights, my failure to switch
them on based possibly on a subconscious suspicion that there
would be no point, since they wouldn't work anyway, like the
rest of my electrical universe.  Fortunately, I soon recovered
my ability to indicate turns, and over the course of several
really surprisingly lousy days, no one was injured on my
account. In my defense, how could I not -- in the aftermath of a
natural disaster -- forget everything, even essential
accessories?  We were spared all but inconvenienc