That's always been one of my pet peeves for this part of the country. It doesn't take THAT large a generator to run a couple lights and a pump at a time. Radio stations, some stores (but the roads were all closed after the 3rd day to all but emergency travel), colleges, and even a local TV station stayed on the air during the '98 storm. Not a single gas station or garage or Quickie mart was open. One owner told me it was cheaper to claim it on his insurance than to stay open & sell the gas. It happened again in 2001 but was only a 3 1/2 day outage (for us) that time, and same thing; not a single gas station was open. People dont' learn.