We also have one of those “when men shop at Costco alone” items and it is plug-in, rechargeable, LED flashlights. They sit in their little charger that is plugged in and if the power goes out - they go on! Very easy to find that way. Of course, we live in a strange house with sideways outlets and the only ones we can use for this thing now are near the floor and behind the wire mesh shelves in our pantry.
I have a solar powered flashlight that lives on a windowsill. And a bunch of other flashlights, which I may or may not be able to find. One is in my work bag as I often need it for architecture stuff. The only time we lost electricity for a long time was the big summer black out ten or fifteen years ago. We just ate food from the freezer as it slowly turned into a refrigerator. Many of our neighbors have gas powered generators, but we’ve been lucky so far and haven’t succumbed. I agree that having some ultra pasteurized milk is a good idea. After Chernobyl we had a six month supply while we waited for the radioactivity level of the cows to go back to normal levels.
We used to keep numerous flashlights, battery powered camping lanterns and a propane camping stove with extra canisters of propane on hand. Also extra blankets and battery powered radios. And cash. Now, we have a whole house generator that runs off our natural gas line. It’s hard wired into our electrical panel and 20 seconds after we lose power, it kicks on. It powers literally everything in our house other than our central air conditioners and our double electric oven. We have ceiling fans in every room so we can deal with no AC and can plug in a counter top electric oven/broiler if need be. We lose power 2-4 times/year and have been without public utility power for a week. While the rest of our development deals with the impact, life goes on in our house uninterrupted. Best investment we ever made in a home improvement.
You need food and plenty of it, access to water, camping equipment such as led lanterns and a cookstove, hopefully a power source that will keep one refrigerator going, and as one person mentioned, a car that is kept more than half full of gas. Also a gun with bullets.
Cash is good to keep on hand as well. In the event of a catastrophe so terrible that paper money will no longer be any good, sterling flatware will probably take its place, since it has an established silver content and is hard to counterfeit.
^Wow, I thought we were talking about a normal power outage caused by weather, not the zombie apocalypse! I have been through plenty of ice storms, hurricanes and blizzards and have yet to have the need to shoot my neighbors.
I also vote for a gun. A lesson from Katrina.
I have several cellphone backup battery chargers. Never leave home without one.
“Cash is good to keep on hand as well. In the event of a catastrophe so terrible that paper money will no longer be any good, sterling flatware will probably take its place, since it has an established silver content and is hard to counterfeit.”
In the event of a zombie apocalypse or another event where things would majorly fall into anarchy, no one is going to care about your grandmother’s sterling sliver (actually there is very little market for it now). It’s a false assumption that precious metals will really be all that precious if the proverbial you-know-what hits the fan. More like food, clean water, seeds, fuel, batteries, that milking cow and chickens. Stuff that can actually keep you alive. I’m a seller on the sterling flatware along with any gold jewelry you might have.
I took the “shoot my neighbors” comment as an aside that wasn’t meant to be taken seriously or as a new aspect of this topic. But in an abundance of caution, let me say that if people think that having guns is part of emergency preparedness, that is OK to state. What is not OK is to then turn that into another debate about gun control. That would simply be their opinion about what to have available in emergencies. One can agree or disagree with that on that basis alone, as least for this thread.
Well, darn it, @doschicos - I thought I was finally going to have a use for the two sets of sterling that I inherited. 
We have all the usual stuff here- flashlights, sleeping bags, manual can opener and are probably good for a few days. Food wise, we could live off the pantry but after a while it would be the stuff that I always wonder why I bought. Our power lines are underground so we rarely lose power.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
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@Onward - I’ll trade you three sets of china and 2 sets of crystal for sterling. Wait-- I got DIL to take one set of sterling-- hoping that when DS#2 marries I can offload the other. Assuming no zombie apocalypse occurs before then.
**eta - with the removal of some posts, the posts are re-numbered, and post #25 has now become a post of mine rather than another poster’s post. That reference above, about post #25, refers to the original post #25, not my post #25, should anyone besides me be a bit confused!
And I apologize for bringing the zombies into the discussion! Our kits will of course vary by location and other factors. My woodpile would be of little use to someone in NYC or Southern Florida.
The CDC has already posted recommendations for how to prepare for the zombie apocalypse http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm
Good advice to follow 
Tarps and duct tape. Plastic sheeting. . If something happens to your roof or windows you will need them.
Find your insurance papers ahead of time and have insurance on speed dial.
A small portable gas grill with butane tanks. We have a larger grill that got a lot of use but a camp stove is good.
Canned food and manual (or battery) can opener.
A generator is wonderful if you can maintain it. Extension cords. Lots.
We filled prescriptions ahead of time for people when hurricane was coming. I worked for a small oxygen company at the time. We called everyone to check on their med supply and delivered meds. Glad we did.
People don’t always look very far ahead for medical emergency purposes. Anybody that requires oxygen needs to get out of town. Your provider could be under water. You don’t have electricity to make oxygen and neither do they.
Lots of debris afterwards. A can or six of “fix-a-flat” might be useful.
We were without electricity for two solid weeks (not Sandy) at home… Got a generator after the first week. A fan was wonderful. . No phone, no lights, no cell service.
Animals–stock up on food. Get a disposable litter box. They make “pop-up” kennels for traveling with pets. If you land in a hotel, they are great.
"In the event of a zombie apocalypse or another event where things would majorly fall into anarchy, no one is going to care about your grandmother’s sterling sliver (actually there is very little market for it now). "
Amen. That’s really just silly. The value of that stuff is either sentimental, or whatever (far less than replacement value) you can get today.
I posted this about a year ago on a CC thread that had a similar discussion about emergency preparedness, but I simply have to post it again:
Here’s my own doomsday prep plan.
WHAT I’M HEARING: Sound of gunfire, off in the distance (I’m getting used to it now)
HOW SERIOUSLY I TAKE IT: Very seriously. This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around.
THINGS I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR: Dancing, lovey dovey.
TRANSPORTATION: Van loaded with weapons, packed up and ready to go.
ALTERNATE IDENTIFICATION ON HAND: Three passports, a couple of visas (Pizzagirl isn’t my real name)
CITIES I’M PARTICULARLY WORRIED ABOUT: Houston, Detroit, Pittsburgh PA
FOOD STASH: Some groceries, some peanut butter - should last a couple of days
STILL NEED: Some speakers, headphones and records to play
I have a lovely solar powered charger that you can plug any USB plug into. Gotta keep checking CC during a blackout! Of course, if you have a days-long blizzard with no sun you might be out of luck unless you charge it up first.
Whole house generator! Best thing we ever did. After suffering through lots of power outages, we finally installed one two years ago–don’t know why we didn’t get it sooner. It’s wonderful. I live in New England and we’ve often have power outages due to snowstorms. In fact, last night there was a huge rain storm (possibly a tornado–National Weather Service has yet to decide what it was) with lots of trees down and power outages just 10 miles from us.
We were impacted by 1994 Northridge earthquake. Fortunately we had some camping gear as we had to live outside for a few days until building inspectors could check houses. Also get cars out of garages ASAP as cars can be short term housing and your homeowners insurance will probably exclude any damage to cars caused by earhquake. Agree 100% with above as to importance of cash. It’s a little thing but shoes under bed are a must in case things fall and break, trying to get outside quickly in the dark over broken glass is a challenge. As to toilet water we let people take buckets of water from our pool in order to fill toilets.