Call an HVAC company.
Half or more of my heat ordinarily is a woodburning stove: the sort that requires no electricity. I can also cook on it to some extent – it’s not really a cookstove but it has two flat surfaces that run at different temperatures, plus I have a couple of trivets to give me temperatures a bit cooler than whatever each surface is at the moment.
In most winter temps, if I’m home to feed the stove the furnace (steam radiatiors, oilburner) only goes on in the small hours of the night if then, and briefly when I turn it up in the morning to help warm the place to daytime temps. If temps are below zero, especially if there’s wind, the stove won’t keep the whole house comfortable with no assistance from the furnace. But it’ll keep the pipes, items in storage that shouldn’t freeze, me, the cats, and the dog from freezing; and it’ll keep me, the cats, and the dog nice and warm if we stay close enough to the stove.
Yes, the power goes out here once in a while, in varying weather. And in any major event requiring a lot of the system to be repaired in multiple places, if whatever’s bringing it down here includes any local damage this will be one of the last places back on; because they’ll start with fixes that restore power to larger groups of people per fix, and then work their way down to those that get smaller numbers of people back up. One of the first things I did when I moved here was to get a wood stove in. (The previous owner had a monster in the basement, which was very inefficient and not in safe condition, and not anywhere you’d want to sit and hang out next to it.)
– that’s not a technique that’ll work for people who live somewhere they can’t have a wood stove, of course. And if you do get one: learn how to use it, and check the chimney. Burning the place down is not useful to anybody.
Had to do that a few years ago, right after that big freeze that took out Texas, my 50 year old furnace decided to die. 6K and a week later we had heat just in time for the next storm. This new furnace is also way more efficient and works better.
Neighbor has come over, cut to length and split several large ash logs which were larger than I can handle these days, and replenished his house’s woodpile and also mine. (He drops and hauls the trees, he does most of the splitting and cutting to length, my woodlot, we split the results.) Good to have the supply well up with this weather report.
Well here’s my prep:
Bought a jug of anti freeze for my car just in case
Made a pot of chile
Checked my cellar door to make sure it is shut
(see Cat in Basement post)
In the process of looking for my winter boots
(a bit late but the shoes are just not surviving the snow)
Hey! the Cat might need to get in! 
(Yes, I know you said the neighbor has a shelter for it. Hence the smiley.)
Yes - I hope the poor little kitty is safe.
I need to check with my neighbors.
Except for added ICE to chill the population. Donald Trump's Reported Chicago Immigration Raid Sparks Alarm and Backlash - Newsweek
Bit nippy here this morning. -36C, -49 windchill. That’s -32/-56 in Freedom units.
Forecasting a massive temperature swing tonight though, supposed to go all the way up to -2C (28F) by tomorrow afternoon.
-2F when I woke, currently 4. The pup wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about his morning walk.
(One benefit to extreme cold/ice/salt is you get to laugh at your dog when you put booties on his paws and he tippy taps around like a moron! :D)
There was an article in today’s paper about how much disaster aid Illinois received last year. Sounded like quite a bit of compensation for flooding, tornados, and cold. But it was difficult to parse out how much was IL alone, as opposed to neighboring states. And the sorts of flooding I’m aware of generally is flooded basements or cropland, as opposed to houses being washed away in hurricanes. We’ve got a regularly inspected newish furnace in good repair and a stocked pantry. Nothing to see here.
They both synch up @ -40, note.
I am about to go out just to brush off my car, tho @ 8F I am not sure how effective ye olde greenhouse effect will be this week…
The greenhouse effect inside cars is effective in sunny weather regardless of how cold it is. Granted, if you’re starting at -40, being 20 degrees warmer inside the car than outside is still pretty cold, but it’s actually quite remarkable how comfortable a non-running car can be in quite cold weather if it’s sitting in the sun.
We just got the alert about an hour ago that school will be closed on Tuesday. Wednesday is expected to be like nine degrees lower, so it’s probably a given at this point, but not official yet.
Where I live it is going down to -3 (F) tonight after a high of 14. Tomorrow is a bit worse and the night will be -12 (F). Wednesday appears to be the last of the cold snap with a high of 12 and a low of 3. Schools will absolutely be closed around here.
I have off today (MLK holiday). I have to be at court tomorrow morning so I guess I will have to brave the cold lol.
And I have a mammogram scheduled for Wednesday.
I hate to cancel because it takes at least 3 months to get another appointment these days.
I might just take the rest of that day off with sick time and drive home after that entertaining appointment.
Not horrible today. 24 and sunny. I was able to dig my car out of the snow. It’s supposed to be about 5 tomorrow morning
This is when I am really glad we finally replaced all the storm windows a couple of months ago. MUCH less leaky and we no longer have an inch of ice on the windows inside the house!
During a prior polar vortex, we bought heavy insulating curtains for all the windows on the main floor of the house, where all the living space is. They are definitely handy, too. May deploy them when the sun goes down (in addition to the cellular blinds). 11F right now (wind chill -7), going down overnight to -6, predicted high of a whopping 2 degrees tomorrow. That’s when I’m really glad I work 100% remotely these days!
Tomorrow may involve baking bread just to have an excuse to crank up the oven…
I re-seasoned my cast iron pans this morning.
I was just annoyed at myself for realizing I’d forgotten to bake bread earlier in the weekend as I’d planned (for the simple reason that I’m out of bread). But now that you mention it, there’s definitely an upside, too.
Pick up some chocolate while you are out.
It was 8F this morning, got up to 13 and is now back down to 10. We got another inch of snow last night but it was bright and sunny today. Some schools are closed tomorrow and some are delayed due to the expected icy roads.
My doctor appointment was in person but will not be by phone. His office is on roads that will be clear but some of his staff live out in the hollers with roads that won’t get paved until next week at least.
Chocolates sounds like a good idea. They will go well with the Irish whiskey I have stashed lol.
Hopefully you will survive the cold and the holler roads.
We have those kinds of roads here as well but thankfully the hospital is on a main highway and should be safely cleared.