Best of luck with the snow, we've worry about the same issues with every snowfall too!

About fan migration -- I have a lot of hope that the federated/Hubzilla thing will work out well. Some really dedicated and excited folks are working on making it an easy transition and a friendly environment. I'm not being much use myself, just helping with the occasional experiment, but I'm enjoying the process and there is a fair amount of fannish content, at least in some fandoms.