I have to ask if the Generator is a Generac.

If it is the brushless type Generac - you might want to invest in a extra capacitor for the generator.

I took a near lightning strike back in April - did damage to just the 3 six meter antenna's in the yard and didn't affect anything else except that the capacitor went on the generator and it refused to put out any power.

I took it to the local alternator shop, and instead of just selling me the part, they played dumb and charged me $120 for a simple $25.00 repair.

I am the same way about loosing power.
I like to turn on all the outside lights and the inside lights so the people sitting in the dark can see that I still have light.

My 4500 watt Honda uses about 5 gallons of gasoline every 8 hours.
So by your estimation - you had enough gasoline for about 24 hours of use.

You didn't say where you lived...

If it was New York City - then you probably would have needed to conserve as much as you could.

Other places other then West Virginia it wouldn't have been so bad.

The electric lines arcing tells me that they have a problem with the switch gear at the local sub station.
The power should have cycled 3 times in about a second and then shut off.

That is about standard for new switch gear made today.
Siemens, ABB , ARRIVA etc...