We live in Virginia, so hurricanes are not a common thing here. We usually just get the tail end of something. But power outages are something that is common and we want to be prepared for whatever comes our way.

We have gas heat and use gas for cooking. Will this be affected by power outages? Also, if temperatures are high outside, how do we keep animals that like cooler temperatures (cats, rats, ferrets) from overheating. I know that ferrets can't stand temperatures over 80 for too long.

We are going to put together a power outage "survival kit" that includes:

Batteries
Flashlights
Bottled Water

Thats all we have to our list right now. Feel free to suggest things to add to our list and any advice on surviving a power outage when you have both reptiles and mammals to keep comfortable.