Submitted by the_wookie_of_maine t3_10q115z in Maine
Check on your neighbors....Today go door to door let them know you are here and setup some check ins over the next few days to make sure you are safe and they are safe/warm. You may need their car to start in the morning (or vise versa)
Speaking of cars, back them in, if possible and face the battery away from the wind. You are most likely going to need a jump in the extreme cold how to jump a car youtube here's a how to jump a car (You should watch, and learn today instead of tomorrow). Having easy access to the front of the car to jump will make a miserable day easier. Find out where your jump points are while it's warm... when it's cold it's a pain in the neck.
There is a myth you need to run your car a few mins before driving around, [no, you don't].(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEaYKmxk_yc) Will you wreck your car if you let it idle this week, probably not. If you idle the car you are either sitting in the cold car, or you have been in and out of your home more than needed letting heat escape.
Worried about freezing pipes, if your home is new, it SHOULD not be an issue. Older homes, find the coldest faucet(s) and start a slow trickle over the extreme cold.
In your coldest rooms, unless drained, you do need to make sure you have some heat going through, you don't want freezing pipes. Set them to 45/50.
Locate your water isolation valves before the cold, and know how to turn off a heat zone in case a pipe bursts. You should cycle them soon to make sure they are working.
If you do have frozen pipes, and you have access try to unfreeze them with a hairdryer, and let them slowly run when thawed.
For those with Cable (not just Spectrum); there is a strong chance you will have a service interruption, there are two types of metal in the lines out on the poles, the inside conductor contracts at a different rate when compared to the outside layer, this leads to something called Environmental Pull Out (or the more fun name, Suck out) where the center stinger gets sucked out of connections causing the service to stop working. Call and let them know if you go down, and save some videos in anticipation of it going out.
RelationshipBig2798 t1_j6n7w69 wrote
We endure cold temps in maine every winter every year. Including last year and the year before. Nothing new. Nothing to fret about. Stop fear mongering. Common sense will prevail.