While The Weather Channel gleefully reports on the "historic" nature of this week's winter storm—Two Dozen States Impacted! A Third of the Nation's Population Affected! Thundersnow! Tornadoes! Blizzards!—business travelers should be obsessed with a more selfish reality: Have we properly prepared for the possibility of being stranded somewhere on the road?

Over the last decade, business travelers as a group have confronted (and mostly survived) earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, mudslides, political insurrection, financial meltdown, tornadoes, wildfires, blackouts, strikes, data outages, tsunamis, ice and snowstorms, and terror attacks. There may have even been the biblical plague of locusts somewhere. Every crisis offered its own lessons. Each time we adapted and learned. Each time we reordered our carry-on bags and refined out personal emergency kits.

But the problem is remembering. The challenge is remaining vigilant and doing what we know has to be done to remain safe and productive during a natural or man-made disruption.

We talked about the strategies for traveling in challenging conditions just a few weeks ago. We've discussed using social media to track breaking travel news and finding global intelligence to limit risk. But in the face of this week's colossal snow, wind, and ice storm that even has the Federal Emergency Management Agency grimly issuing preparedness warnings, business travelers need to revisit their best tactics for making due if they get stuck on the road. Nothing fancy. Just flat-out survival strategies if the worst happens and the basics disappear.

Pack Your Own Power

The nation's electrical grid is, to put it mildly, creaky. High winds, too much snow, or a heavy coating of ice can bring down power lines for days. Some, but hardly all, hotels and motels have backup generators. So a business traveler's first worry is simply keeping the juice flowing to power mobile phones and computers.

You should always make sure your phones and computers are charged at all times. Never pass up an opportunity to recharge because you never know when the power might disappear. And always pack in your carry-on bag a backup battery for both your mobile phone and mobile computing device. And an aside to Apple fans: Many of the company's devices do not have removable batteries, which means you should a) rethink your loyalty to a company that makes portable products with such a bizarre limitation; and b) obsess more than other business travelers about staying fully charged while the power is on.

Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there's also been a growing third-party market for inexpensive, lightweight portable recharging gear. The new Engergizer XP18000, for example, weighs five pounds and measures just 7 by 4 by 1 inches. But it can recharge three devices at once and claims to offer as much as 42 hours of standby power for mobile phones and six hours for laptop computers. And a disposable Cellboost, about the size of a thumb drive, will provide as much as an hour of emergency talk time. Any good travel-supplies company offers a full range of these types of products. Magellan's, for instance, offers everything from battery- to solar-powered solutions.

Lighting Your Way

Travelers stranded by Katrina—or those stuck in the London Underground during the 2005 terrorism attacks—learned that something as basic as light can't be taken for granted. But here's the good news: The world is now awash in high-powered, miniature flashlights with batteries and bulbs that seem to last forever. Magellan's sells the Impulse Carabiner for about $15, and Jazebra sells the Sapphire Elite for $12. They're smaller than your pinkie finger and can attach to your key ring or the zipper slider on your briefcase or carry-on bag. Prefer a traditional-size flashlight? Amazon sells the Freedom Flashlight for $20. The 3-ounce device is powered by the energy created when you shake it.

Go to page two to get tips on carrying a cash reserve, paper backups, and extra underwear.