Just recently, my hometown—Buffalo, N.Y.—was hit with a somewhat “perfect storm”: On October 12 and 13, 22 inches of wet snow fell, coming to rest on thousands of limbs and branches that were still in the midst of their autumnal leaf display. The result: nearly 400,000 folks lost power; all Internet connectivity and landline phone service were gone for many of these people; and street upon street was blocked off by downed power lines and whole trees or tree limbs. For me, this meant no use of the Internet (desktop or wireless) nor driving to another location for computer use—for five days. What follows are my guidelines for dealing with such unexpected events.