A decade or two ago we had a Cat #1 come thru CT. We lost power for 5 days. On day three I went into town to get gas for the generator. All the stores and gas stations had no electricity so they couldn't pump gas. I found out later that a tree had fallen on a sub-station and knocked out several small towns. Turned around and drove to a city with power. Luckily I had enough in the tank to get there. Not everything is simple.