Jim, In case you haven't done a hurricane lately, there is a protocol. Remember when you were a kid at Halloween, you'd go to a complete stranger's house, say "Trick or Treat!," and they'd give you candy? Well, after a hurricane, complete strangers will come to town, and you go up to them and say "Can I have a blue tarp?," and they'll tell you "No, we're out of tarps." Then they'll give you water, ice and MREs. It's lots of fun.

Then you go home and sweat like a pig for a week until the power comes back home. But it's not completely boring. You get to throw out rotten food from your freezer when you're not picking branches and shingles out of your yard. And don't forget the strong odor of decomposing debris that permeates everything for a couple of weeks afterwards. And you get to meet all the interesting people from all over the country who come to put your electrical grid back together, and the National Guardsmen from three states away who protect you from looters. Ah, yes. Hurricanes. You got to love 'em.