Paul Thurst on his Engineering Radio Blog, dated Dec. 29, 2015, explains everything all about Emergency Broadcasting:
I've given some thought from time to time on being prepared, particularly for a power outage. Up in these parts a tornado or severe thunderstorm can easily knock out power for a hour, a day, or a week. Or more.
My Part 15 station has a couple UPS supplies that have kept it running for just over 10 hours without even coming close to using up their reserve. If I need it, I have a generator -- I don't remember it's rating but it will run our fridge, sump pump, the station and an occasional light, fan, etc easily. It's full of gas. Tested regularly. If power is out and no gas is readily available we have 5 vehicles, all with tanks of gas. That not only can run the generator, but are themselves handy generators that can run radio communications, etc. Add to that a couple 2 gallon cans of gas, a couple 6 gallon tanks of gas for the boat, plus gas in the snoblower and two lawnmowers, we could run the generator for an awfully long time even without access to a gas station.
My ham gear also has a pair of UPS supplies. More than enough to run what I own for quite some time, and there's always generator, or power from a vehicle. My 2 meter handi talkies are always charged, and I have battery cases with LITHIUM batteries in them -- MUCH longer shelf life, more power and work at extreme temperatures than alkalines -- perfect for up here where the temp can be 95 or 30 below zero. So they're ready to go when the charged batteries give out. Our local ham radio club has a repeater system that also has auto starting back up generators. The repeaters are co-located with my commercial FM station so they have a lot of height working for them. I can hit our local repeater from our cabin 45 miles away with a watt on my HT.
As for the commercial stations I work for, our FM has a backup transmitter than runs on it's own LP Gas generator if the power goes out. It also runs the tower lights! The studio has UPS supplies that will run it for several hours and access to generator if necessary to keep the critical studio equipment running. Sadly our AM station does NOT have backup power for the transmitter. But the studios are at the same location and will keep running if necessary.
I case of winter crisis we have a fireplace and a whole lot of wood (northern Minnesota is basically a forest after all).
There's a lot you can do to be a bit prepared without spending a ton of money. Just tossing out a few things I've done around here.
TIB