Here in Kenutckyana, we are looking at a "big" storm, up to 3 inches of snow. (yeah, last winter I was in Cleveland so I'll see your 3 inches and raise you a foot)
Either way, we are looking at a big storm. It may be too late to do any of this now for this storm, but there will be another some day.
http://www.battery1234.com has several good ideas on back up power generation, to include an inverter recommendation that you hook up to your car and turn it into a generator…which would mean most homes have two generators!
FEMA and the Red Cross have long recommended food and back up warmth for three to seven days. Http://www.ready.gov and http://www.redcross.org/... have some other good ideas many of which you can do with short notice. (or to get ready for the next storm.)
I've done some of this, as time and money (mostly money) has allowed. For the back up food, what has worked best for my family has been "copy canning" where you buy one extra can of something more than you need for the week and make sure you replace what you use each week. So if you use 1 can of green peas a week, each time you go shopping you buy two. When you have say three weeks of peas on hand, three cans, you switch to another item. You build up a pantry quickly this way and can start saving money by buying things on sale.
We also made sure our blankets and cold weather cloths are out where we can find them as well as our candles and lamps. All our rechargeable batteries are begin topped off now.
I also made sure our snow shovels are not going to get covered in snow some place in the yard…the kids were using them to try to build a snowman yesterday.
Stay warm all, and make sure you check in on your neighbors to make sure they are ok.