You should join the mages' college in winterhold, if you've got the aptitude.

Photo says 1883 I think

Edit: it hilariously looks like 1483

I've been within the last few months. They have a bar (staffed by volunteers) and free pool tables, which is worth stopping by for a few beers and a couple games, and to throw some money in the donation bin.

It definitely feels more like a community center or "public house" than the straight-ahead business it used to be, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

Been here my whole life, and am old.

As to whether these outages are going to become more frequent... there's no debate the weather is getting weirder and more extreme, specifically the big winds in late fall, unfrozen and saturated ground through more of the winter, etc. However, it definitely seems like the rural grid is overall better and quicker to be restored.

As a kid, I remember almost every winter there would be week-long outages from pretty mundane weather. We didn't have a generator and it was miserable.

As for how to better prepare? My closest neighbors growing up were depression-era folks who barely noticed if the power went out. They used wood for heat, oil lamps for light (but mostly would just sleep when it was dark), did a lot of canning and pickling of summer veg, had an outdoor root cellar, an outhouse, etc. Nothing about their day to day really NEEDED electricity.

Obviously that's a tough way to go all the time, but having some of those options will really stretch generator fuel a long way, and are pretty tolerable for a week or so.