Cold weather in January is bad enough, but add an outage on top of it, and you only have so long before you are shivering in your own home. Boiler breakdowns are not uncommon either, peaking in January from prolonged usage and cold, adverse, and extreme winter weather for consecutive months.
As someone who's spent the last few days in a cold house because of exactly these issues, it's not just the heating being out to worry about. If a house is left unheated for too long, whatever the cause, it runs the risk of frozen pipes and mold growth.
