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And from WV.... No snow... We had our share of power outages in the last couple of years (probably 8+ weeks or more in the last 3 years where we live). Solution....
Keep basic supplies of batteries, food, water on hand for a couple of weeks. Doesn't have to be expensive freeze dried survival food either.... It can be stuff you normally eat when the storm season is over. A few cans of gas are nice too, for the car or generator. When the gas station doesn't have power, then they can't run the pumps. Do your shopping (for extras) as soon as you hear of the storm, not as its starting to hit....
Sleeping bags, the ones rated down to about 30 degrees are great for in house use. We stayed in the house during a week long outage when the temp was under 30 a couple years ago for a week. It wasn't bad with sleeping bags (house looked like hell after it), we got the Generac right after that.
Go to Lowe's and get about 5 gallons of RV antifreeze. If the house is headed towards freezing, Pour some down the drains to fill the traps on sinks tubs, showers, flush some in the toilets, make sure you get the clothes washer drain too. It gets really expensive to fix those and it will make your insurance company happy (which means your rates stay lower)... If you can shut off the water (most people can) Drain it as well as you can. If you can't shut if off then let it run at at least a fast drip, that keeps the pipes from freezing since liquid water is actually warmer than ice, it can't get cold enough to freeze if it moves.... (unless it gets really really cold)....
Chains saws come in handy too.... Stihl seems to be the favorite here, they last forever. If you've never used one, maybe its better if you don't use one, if you have to use one, then keep in mind, you cut with the sides of the bar and NEVER the TIP....
Last, get a generator NOW..... (may be too late MASS)... Get a good one.... If you want portable, get a REAL HONDA (not Sam's Club crap with a Honda engine and a made in China power head). The warehouse store ones didn't fair well on our hollow last storm.... 2 new ones lasted about 2 days each before they died (actual generators quit working, engines were fine), and that was 2 days into what turned into a 8 day outage. HOOK UP AND TEST THE GENERATOR before the storm hits. Have properly sized extension cords, so you can hook up Fridge, Freezer, etc... Or get it basically wired into house. If you wire into the house, make sure that you can take the house off line so you don't kill a man working for the electric company who thinks the line he's working on is disconnected. They can feed back into the power lines.
Us, we had a 20KW Generac installed 3 years ago after that 8 day fiasco, totally automatic. Power outages last 20 seconds now before it comes on line. With Nat Gas power, its awesome. Cost to run is about $20 a day (with gas at $10/MCF), Install, generator was $4500, $1600 for real installation. Value... PRICELESS, since we got ours, there have been 7 more installed on the hollow in about 25 houses. BTW, you should change the oil in it every 100 hours (can go 150 hours), So have a few spare filters and a case of oil for it.
Last, forget the snow shoveling, if you have a snow blower/tractor fine. Not hardly worth having a heart attack for a clean driveway or sidewalks.
Best wishes
Mark H
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Fly safe or you get to meet me .......
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