11 days without power

I live on the edge of Batemans Bay, a regional town in NSW. On New Years Eve 2019 a bush fire arrived across the road from us. Thanks to the fantastic efforts of the fire fighters none of the houses immediately adjacent to us were lost despite the extensive flaming combustion of tall trees across the road from us. However, the local infrastructure was very damaged. We had extremely limited communication available and no electricity for eleven days. Our personal privation was not the worst of the people we know, but it was extremely difficult to reassure our family and friends from further away that we were managing. Cooking, fresh food, showering were all quite challenging and keeping a mobile phone charged was extremely difficult. The circumstances demonstrated that regional infrastructure cannot properly cope with a disaster.