My uncle in Reno told me to ditch my wall charger for a hand crank radio before a 4 day storm
I thought he was being paranoid when he said it at his garage sale back in March. Then the power went out for 4 days straight and my phone was dead by hour 6 while his $25 crank radio kept pulling in the emergency broadcast station. I ended up charging my phone off his radio's USB port twice a day and it worked every time. Anyone else keep a crank radio around, and do the cheaper ones actually hold up or just the $25 and up models?
How often does the power really go out for 4 days though? In my experience most outages are a few hours, tops, and you can just sit in your car and charge your phone off the cigarette lighter if you're that hard up. Buying gear for a once in a decade storm feels like the kind of thing that ends up in a junk drawer next to the flashlight you never use. And those cheap crank radios are usually junk, the crank handle snaps off or the battery won't hold a charge after a year. Your uncle got lucky with his, your mileage may vary. If it makes you feel better to have one, fine, but don't kid yourself that it's some kind of plan.