Interestingly enough, yesterday a number of different phone services were not available ~ Vonage, which I use, wouldn't connect up with my parent's service in Illinois. Today it does so broken communication lines are being fixed (and sometimes that's just a matter of pumping water out of a below grade wirechamber).
It is warming up this weekend. At the same time the area hit by the storm is ususally pretty well prepared to "take in the neighbors".