[mindslight]

I would guess the biggest stressor is having kids. Also wanting light to be able to see at night, which we've become accustomed to. And wanting communication to the larger world which we've become very accustomed to (and we can bemoan this as much as we want, but still can't deny it's a thing).

Then not wanting to waste the various stocked up food in the fridge/freezer. You could forgo this and consider it lost, but since you're already trying to tackle the general problem, it adds to the motive.

Other possible stressors that don't seem to be in play here are needing heat in the winter or needing cooling in the summer. Personally I'd rather not freeze to death, or even have to huddle under blankets hoping for someone else to rescue me. And an outage not in the winter is a great time to practice.

In general, problems compound so when faced with such a situation that lops off a huge amount of normalcy, the understandable instinct is to try to right the situation lest you fall even further. Camping is great and all, but you're still relying on the option to come back to full amenities and pay off the accumulated debt.

[brianpan]

100%

I lost power for a few days because of a downed power line in my backyard. The stress comes because all the "automatic" decisions that were made by organizing a system for your life fall apart. And you are overwhelmed by needing to continuously make new, suboptimal decisions and balancing trade-offs multiplied by the size of your family. And all your neighbors are trying to make the same decisions with the same lack of infrastructure.

Check into a hotel so the kids can have internet to do homework? Nope, hotels are already booked or also in the dark. Find somewhere farther from school and work and on top of that also puts more pressure on EV charging times? Ugh.

We were fortunate to have so many resources to help us and thankfully no one was injured, but even then, it was the most stressful week of my life in a long, long time.

[swiftcoder]

> Then not wanting to waste the various stocked up food in the fridge/freezer

As someone who has been through the long blackouts after hurricanes, a packed chest freezer will make it about 3 days before the bottom layer defrosts, so you fucking cook the lot, and feed your friends and neighbours. Hurricane block parties are a thing.

[prmoustache]

Main risk during winter is not to freeze to death, but the fire and smoke hazards that comes with people making fires where they shouldn't be.

[mindslight]

Yes. Which is why it can be important to get electricity back on if your usual heating solution requires electricity to operate, rather than perhaps entertaining rustic visions like finally getting to use that fireplace.

I'm not saying that's the case here (I don't know! When OP has a spare minute they should think about what would have been different in a snowstorm!). It's just that this edgy contrarian "what's the big deal just read a book man" is laughable for most situations.