We study the one-particle density of excitations and the density of states of a strongly Anderson-localized system in the presence of Coulomb interactions. Using a pair correlation function obtained from computer simulation, we obtained, analytically, a density of excitations, including the effects of electron-hole correlations. These results are used to calculate hard gaps in the density of states by the techniques of Efros and Davies, and also in a new calculations where stabilization of the ground state is aided by polaron transitions.