I've never heard of that, Charley. You are at more risk for power outages if you are in one of the areas that got ice before the cold. Ice is heavy on power lines and the trees above them. So if you get ice, power lines come down all the time. But not with just cold. At least to my knowledge.
In cold snaps, people die from misusing stoves, ovens, and space heaters. There are always tragedies on the news in cold snaps of entire families dying from fires or carbon monoxide because of misusing space heaters and generators and such. Just last week, a mom and two kids died because they had a space heater at the top of their stairs while they were sleeping. It caught fire, and because they put it at the top of their stairs, they didn't have a way out. Sounds a little crazy, but another way to keep your heating system from overworking is to run your ceiling fans. The best hot air is up by your ceiling. Running the fan, pushing the air up if you can, moves that hot air throughout the room and will save you energy and stress on your heater.
And if you have to travel by car, I've heard that you can heat your car enough to stay alive by lighting three candles. But I don't know they expect the carbon monoxide to vent out of your car, so take that advice with a grain of salt.
Some people pick up some water before it gets really cold, just in case. Plumbing issues can be a problem in extended cold snaps. Up north, we bury our water lines from the city supply really deep so they don't freeze. I don't know if southern states have the same standards. When pipes get cold, and then thaw, you tend to see broken water mains. It happens when it's cold, but more often when it warms up after being cold for some reason. Definitely remove any hoses on your house. If you have pipes that run along exterior walls, some people will let a little drip run through the faucets so the pipes don't freeze. Both hot and cold water. Every cold snap, someone dies because a pipe freezes and they try to thaw it with a blow torch or flame. So don't do that.