Living in Frances' wake.
Well power has just returned to my neighborhood as of 10pm last night. I am glad to say all tank inhabitants except a rose anemone made it. Five days without power is a long time believe me. There was alot of damage to my neighborhood, fortunately minor damage to the house and a few downed trees that can be re-planted.
As far as responsible reefing, I would have to agreee with Dgasmd. I have a 220 reef that is mostly frags since I recently moved, but I have twelve fish and some have been with me for over five years. These animals are my responsibility and I was not going to let them down.
As I prepared for the possiblities with this tremendous storm I was able to purchase four battery air pumps and plenty of Batteries. I searched everywhere for a generator but was unable to acquire one before the storm. Instead I bought a UPS backup and hoped for the best. The air pumps helped for the first two days without power, sadly the UPS did not work at all (probably user error) but that meant I had to figure out something else. When Home Depot re-opened I waited in line 3 hours to purchase one of 900 generators that had been shipped down to WPB area. After having friends from a nearby southern unaffected county bring me gas it was smooth sailing for the last three days as I was able to run the entire tank, lights, chiller and both refrigerators and even a small fan to make sleeping bearable.
I am so relieved to have one for the next emergency. If you ask me I am much happier to post pics of my brand new 5500watt workhorse generator than a newly purchased SPS colony anyday. Just have to charge the battery in the camera