Oh, my goodness! That is HORRIBLE! So glad everyone's okay!
Yes, I do suspect the storms across the country are all related.
No. We don't have any generator here. Really, with the mild climate, there's little need for such things, except during the occasional winter cold-snap. And we're in mid-priced apartments. To complicate matters, we're not even allowed to have candles (lease forbids because of fire risk in multi-occupant dwellings). We DO have a fireplace - but no tools & no wood! Thanks be to God, we were really fine thru it all - except this pesky cold. And, there are even restaurants open only a couple of miles away - we just had to navigate downed power lines & trees to get there. We're VERY glad to be back up now : ) Just spent a huge amount at walmart, restocking for part of our food loss, and buying cold supplies. (You can never have too many puffs with lotion!)
Sorry about your basement. I have a little idea how frustrating that can be!
They're predicting more possible storms tomorrow - so don't worry too much if our power goes out again.