Having appliances like Gas Stoves(as long as you make sure you can light them with a match when the power is out) and gas in your fireplace (so you don't have to take out a hatchet and newspapers to actually build your fire in your fireplace from scratch) are very helpful. So, if your power is out likely, anything (including your heating system is going to go). All normal lighting (unless you have solar power with batteries) will be gone until the power is put back on.
It is really useful to have a stove top to cook and to warm your hands and water for tea or for washing dishes as well. Once your heater is off until the power goes back on your fireplace and your car, truck or motorhome is the only place you are going to get warmed up generally speaking because even if you have a generator most of them won't run a little electric heater because they draw too much.
Where I live sometimes 50 to 100 mile per hour winds come onshore during the winters and knock down a lot of trees. Since all the wires are above ground this often means power outages. So, some years we get away with no power off at all but most years it averages between 3 to 4 days or more with no power where we live. I have thought seriously about putting solar cell roof tiles on my home except that in northern California it is not known to be that sunny along the coast most of the year. So, most of the time it is high or low fog or clouds over half the time during the year. However, the mist from all this makes beautiful forests where I live thrive too. So, without this type of weather it wouldn't be half as beautiful here as it is.
So, since natural gas is always underground for safety it is usually always on unless there is an earthquake or flood. And as you can see some places in New Jersey if you are on the coast and a flood moves your home often the gas catches on fire on your foundation where you home used to be.
However, this could also be true in a bad earthquake in California too. So, whether it is natural gas or electrical there are always dangers. However, most people prefer this to the other option which is gathering firewood for their wood stoves and getting kerosene Alladin Lamps to see by.
So, if you are somewhere the power goes out at least once a year it might be an advantage to have a gas stove and a gas fireplace to light your logs so you don't have to spend a half an hour with newspaper and a hatchet making kindling to try to get your fireplace going. (even though I did do that also for years when I heated my home in the mountains in the snow with a wood stove).
Also, since I have an Onan gas powered generator in my motor home if the power goes out I have found that from about 8 am to 9pm I can have this on without upsetting my neighbors too much. With this I can power my wifi and computers and cellphones and refrigerator or I can power my refrigerator and large TV in the living room and several lights in the house. And this is pretty useful to keep everything but feeling as warm as I am used to in my house. I run a 110 AC 100 foot power cord from my motorhome into my kitchen and first plug in my refrigerator so food doesn't go bad. Then I move my router and modem and a surge protector series of outlets into the kitchen so I can wifi to all the laptops in the house and I can also charge all the cellphones of everyone living here. I also can plug in my IPad too. If we get kind of cold we sometimes all go out into the motorhome and turn the engine and heater on and warm up while watching a DVD on our TV in the motorhome as well. So, dealing with a power outage doesn't necessarily have to become hell. It can also be interesting and often even fun if you are prepared right for it.
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