I read the story earlier today. The Mayor was rather tactless, since there are going to be many residents in his city, like the elderly and disabled, who might have difficulty doing what he said.
Bad presentation aside, he makes good points regarding able-bodied people that sit around waiting for someone to take care of them. He might have have framed his statement more into "able-bodied people get off your ass, stop waiting for the government to save you, and be a good citizen and check on your neighbors who might not be able to help themselves."
IMO, anyone who lives in a home (vs an apartment or similar) should at least have a small 2KW generator or some other power source for things like minimal heating with portable heaters, etc. Plus water and other reserves. We talk about this stuff all the time here, so other than the Mayor's poor choice of words, what he's saying is what we say all the time at APS.