Consider the odds.
In my 48 years of living in Florida (admittedly mostly in Tampa) I have been in a house without electricity due to weather for three days on one occasion and for 30 hours on another (the recent Hurricane Irma.)
After the three day event, which was back in the 1980's, I bought a portable generator that was capable of supporting my refrigerator, my over-the-air TV, a 100 watt light bulb, and a large electric fan. I could briefly change the power from the refrigerator to the microwave, and at night I ran only the refrigerator and a window unit air conditioner for my bedroom.
For a couple of years after I made the purchase, I ran the generator annually, and changed the gasoline and oil each year. After a while the novelty wore off and it got stuffed in the back of the garage. This time, we didn't even drag out the generator because it was a sure thing that the gasoline had gotten gummy although I had put gas stabilizer in the last tankful and it would take some effort to clean it up and get it running.
As I've mentioned before, food preparation without electricity is not an issue because I have a camp stove and a gas grill.
In the case of Irma, when it became apparent that we might be without electricity for a couple of days, we started preparing the perishables in the freezer for each meal. Nothing spoiled and we ate well. If the power outage had extended another half day we might have cranked up the generator for the refrigerator and electric fans.
Now, The Villages has just gone through a direct hit by a hurricane which was estimated to be a Category 2 blow, which is the worst that a hurricane this far inland is likely to be, so you might want to question the wisdom of the high cost of an investment in a whole house emergency generator in view of the infrequency that hurricanes even come inland as opposed to doing coastal damage.
What are the odds?
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