We had an ice storm in Oklahoma that knocked out power in pretty much the entire city of Tulsa for 7-14 days. I've never seen anything like it. Wal-Mart and McDonald's were closed, because they were without power too. Finding enough food to keep a family of four fed without being able to cook was a challenge. We had cash on hand, but nowhere to spend it.
We deal with ice storms, tornadoes, and now, more earthquakes than California, so I should probably put more thought into our emergency stash.
You really should consider such things.
It doesn't cost that much money or space to store some food & other supplies to ride out a few weeks (aim for a month or two and you should be good for pretty much anything, with excess to help out neighbors if needed).
Some food, water, heat, and light will make a huge difference in a moderate term emergency. A lot of people I know keep some rocket stoves around for cooking without power. The Biolite stoves will also generate electricity in the process, and charge phones (they also use it to run a circulating fan to significantly improve combustion and reduce particulate emissions).
For a decent sized family, you should be able to do all of this for under $1000, and probably closer to $500, depending on what you have - a lot of the stuff is more or less interchangeable with camping gear, so if you have (for instance) a propane camp stove, you've already got a way to cook without power (assuming you keep a few fuel canisters around). If you're already a flashlight snob, you're probably good on lighting for... oh, about a year. :)
Look at the likely situations you'll deal with and have plans for them. As you note, Oklahoma can get some truly Biblical ice storms with significant consequences, and being able to ride through those comfortably is probably something worth doing.
A deep cycle lead acid battery or two in the garage and a set of car chargers for electronics can also be worth keeping around - let the batteries live on a charger (or throw a small solar panel up to keep them topped off), and you can charge phones/flashlights/etc for weeks with the power in them.