Fiat money sure came in handy when 10% or more of the trees in my entire county were blow over toward the east.

Long term, you're getting eaten by inflation, but when the power grid, and most cell sites are down, cash is still king.

The real lesson I've learned is that a small generator consumes about 10 gallons of gasoline per day. There's no way to store enough of it to last through a total collapse, even if you could keep it from being stolen.