Neighborhood lost power this morning while iMac was powered on, and now it’s abysmally slow. Updating from Sequoia 15.6.1 to 15.7.2 now

I have a 2013 iMac 24inch i5 with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD and it’s been lovely on OpenCore’s Sequoia. (I went the OpenCore route primarily to get a working Home App so I can control all my home lights and it works flawlessly)

For the better part of the past few months I’ve been on Sequoia 15.6.1 with no issues, however earlier today a big truck crashed into an electrical pole just outside the neighborhood and everyone lost power for about an hour. I mention this because I keep my iMac on ALL the time and am confident I haven’t once turned it off since perhaps June (and im typing this currently in mid November).

Well, I turn on my iMac just now and it’s ridiculously slow. Opening any app takes forever and then pretty much unusable. The wallpaper on the iMac (and subsequently Cinema Display connected as well) as blank, either completely white or completely black. I’ve tried restarting and I’ve retried turning it off and on but still slow. I feel like my only other option now is to update to 15.7.2 which I’m doing now.

Any advice is appreciated.