Wildfires in Canadadamagedfiber optic cables and cut off communication with large areas.Without land lines and cash, everyone was screwed.

This is not one of my reasons for having cash on hand and always paying cash —I don't think fire damage to Boston's underground cables is likely. But in manyplaces it is another good reason to make a habit of using cash. You canmake sure that the stores you buy from are accustomed to cash payments and realizethat they will lose business if they don't let you pay that way.