Our community recently had to contend with a major blackout in the evening, around 5 p.m.I don't know what to do.

Report it, and wait for the power to come back on.

Where I lived, I owned a house and a large amount of land. I had a back up generator that would run the entire house.

You could have back up battery lamps?

What did people do before electricity?

You aren't in an iron lung... you'll survive without the TV or internet for a while. But you seem to be posting online like usual.