I guess you have electric heat, Willie. We got a generator years ago, just before hurricane Sandy. It's a 6500 watt one from Harbor Freight. I run it every now and then to keep the battery charged, although it has a pull start as well, and it's never failed to start easily. It will run just about the whole place, although maybe not with everything running at once. The water heater is electric, and can also be from oil, so if that's running we have to watch how much other stuff we run.
We were without power for a about a week from Sandy. We've also lost power for multiple days in the winter from snow storms. I've learned to keep a large supply of gas, with stabilizer, just in case. The generator can run for at least a week, non stop, with my stash and, if we're careful, probably close to a month. Worst case I can siphon some gas from the pick-up or car in a pinch. We need power for water as well as refrigeration. Heat is by oil but we still need electric to run that as well. I've got heat backed up with a propane heater and a stash of 20 pound cylinders. In fact I just topped everything up getting prepared for the winter, just in case.