The Triangle’s winter storms are mostly ice, and anyone who was here for the December 2002 storm remembers the sound of limbs coming down all night and the days without power that followed. A winter storm in Durham tests four systems in turn over two or three cold nights, and then it takes the power and tests the household. Here is how to get each of the four ready in the days before the storm arrives, and how to plan for the part nobody can prevent.
First, the heating system
The first system a storm tests is the one asked to hold the house at 68 while the air outside sits in the low 20s with a wind, which the equipment may not have done since last year. Most Durham homes heat with a heat pump, which in that weather leans on its electric auxiliary heat strips, a part that runs a few dozen hours a year and fails unnoticed until the night it is needed. A gas or oil furnace runs for hours at a stretch, which is when a tired igniter or a dirty flame sensor shows itself. If the fall tune-up did not happen, a heat pump or furnace check before the storm is the single most useful appointment on this list, because it tests the strips, the defrost control, the ignition, and the safety controls under load. In the meantime, replace the filter and set the thermostat where you want it and leave it.
Second, the plumbing
The second test comes on the second or third freezing night, and it finds the pipes installed for a climate where hard freezes are rare: the crawl space, the garage, the exterior walls behind sinks, the outdoor spigots, and the irrigation backflow preventer. The routine before the storm takes an afternoon: disconnect and drain the hoses, cover the spigots, wrap bare pipe in the crawl space and garage with foam insulation, and confirm the main shutoff valve turns. When the cold nights arrive, open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls, let a faucet at the far end of the house drip, and keep the thermostat at 55 or above even when you are away. Our post on preventing frozen pipes covers the full routine, including what to do if a pipe freezes anyway.
Third, the crawl space
The third is the space under the house, where a Triangle winter storm does its quietest damage. Piedmont clay holds water, so melting ice pushes moisture into a crawl space that is already damp, while cold air through open foundation vents freezes the pipes and chills the ductwork. Close and seal the foundation vents, insulate the exposed pipe, and if the space takes water, test the sump pump by lifting the float, since the storm that fills the crawl space is often the storm that cuts the pump’s power. A battery backup pump, which our sump pump team installs, keeps it running through the outage. If your home is on a well, confirm the heat lamp or insulation in the well house is working.
The detectors
The fourth test is a safety one. A winter storm brings out space heaters, fireplaces, and portable generators, each a carbon monoxide source in a closed house, and a furnace running harder than it has all year is the one most likely to reveal a cracked heat exchanger. Before the storm, test the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, put in fresh batteries, and replace any unit that is past the date on its back. A home with gas or oil heat, a fireplace, or an attached garage needs a carbon monoxide detector on every level, and our CO services page covers what to have and where.
Then the outage, which tests the household
The 2002 storm left large parts of Durham dark for days, and the July 2026 outage showed that a long outage can arrive in any season. When the power fails in a winter storm, the heat pump, the furnace, and the electric water heater all stop, the sump pump stops while the melt is filling the crawl space, and the house falls toward the outdoor temperature by morning. The household plan covers what the systems cannot: charged flashlights and battery banks, a few days of water, a colder refrigerator and freezer, a steady thermostat so the house starts the outage warm, and a decision about which room holds heat best. A portable generator must run outdoors, well away from every window and door, and must never be plugged into a wall outlet.
After the ice melts
When the storm passes, walk the house. Look at the pipes that were exposed, at the floor around the water heater and the ceiling under any attic air handler, and under the house for standing water. If the power was out, give the heating system a few minutes before judging it, since a flicker during restoration is hard on capacitors and control boards. Our post on what to check after the power comes back covers that walk-through.
If something did not hold
Happy Home has been Durham’s trusted heating and air experts since 1955, and the days after an ice storm are among our busiest. If the heat did not come back, a pipe has split, or the sump pump is silent with water under the house, reach us 24/7 by phone or website chat. Members of the Happy Home Service VIP Club receive priority, same-day service when the storm fills the calendar, and every repair comes with honest, upfront pricing with a 100% money-back guarantee. If a pipe has burst, close the main valve before anything else, and then call.