I like to have a secondary heating system in winter in case the primary fails
Usually I had a steam boiler running and a fan-forced gas furnace as a backup in case something failed with the boiler
Extreme weather is one of the scariest things to deal with in life. If you are in tornado alley, you contend with the existential threat of their appearance during storm season every year. Likewise, being in hurricane alley is terrifying for the same reason. All of the preparations in the world are not enough when the worst happens and you lose everything. There was a recent category 4 storm that swept through this area and was so strong it was only two miles per hour weaker than a category 5 hurricane. The storm leveled a popular beachfront community that is roughly 50 miles south of my house. Some people were killed in their efforts to escape the harrowing storm surge as it quickly swept through their areas like a gradual tsunami. I thought that I had seen everything when I lived up north for years and dealt with a mix of tornadoes and extremely cold winter ice storms that would threaten to freeze you to death if your heating system failed inexplicably. That’s why I always had a secondary heating system while living in these extremely cold environments. A working heater is the difference between life and death in these climates during the cold winter seasons. Usually I had a steam boiler running and a fan-forced gas furnace as a backup in case something failed with the boiler. And to top it off, I technically had a third heating system with my wood stove. I would have used it daily if I had access to trees at the time because I was living in the city at the time and had to purchase my firewood.