Timely: How long can you go without electricity?

Half of the nation of India lost their electricity this week. At this writing, the government is restoring power to the regions of the country hit hardest. But at the power failure's peak, some 600 million people had no electric for a day or more, during a summer when the monsoons are not delivering as much rain as they usually do.

How many days can your household survive without electricity? Survive, or survive comfortably? What if it were winter instead of summer? Do you have a generator, and why or why not? What does any household need in order to get by for a few days without power? Or a week?

Do you live above the fourth or fifth floor of your building? How about your workplace? And do you commute to work by train or subway? Another grid outage question: Do you have cash on hand in case the ATMs go out and the banks won't open?

I should do a longer post exploring what I do in my home.