Ok, I thought I would summarize a list based on suggestions made here. I would make it look like the following:
1). Have a good attitude! (Thanks Eloise). Personally I love snow and it does make me a little bit sad that I don’t get all that much.
2). Good clothing, hats-boots-gloves, snowsuit or carharts, blankets & sleeping bags. I try to avoid cotton where possible in this category as cotton really soaks up water/sweat and then turns to a cold, clammy layer. For natural fibers, wool and silk are excellent fabrics that insulate well without soaking. Carla make an excellent point about dressing in layers.
3). Transportation. A Subaru or similar might well be a good investment. A snowmobile might also be a good idea. Of course, these are more expensive purchases and you have to balance their value against your own savings. What type of vehicle do you own at present?
4). Tools. Get a good snow shovel or two for certain. For deep snow I like having an aluminum grain scoop style shovel as it will lift out a large volume of snow. Maybe a snowblower is worth it? It will certainly make moving larger quantities of snow easier, but it will also require fuel—maybe keep a minimum of 5 gallons for the snowblower alone? Honestly I don’t know how long your driveway is or how often you need to get out. The ladder and sledgehammer are good ideas but I would have these anyway.
5). Power and communication. Since the power will go out, do you have a plan to get by without the electrical company? A generator could be nice, but again it will require fuel—for how long I just don’t know. I would keep the radio and lots of batteries. One little trick I have for a power outage comes from my batteries for my power tools. I have a little inverter that slides on top of the battery and can give 175 watts of power & power a couple of USB devices. Since my batteries are always charged, in an emergency I always have at least enough power to charge my phone.
I am going to add fuel in this category as well. Obviously if you have a snowmobile, generator, snowblower, etc. you will need gas. Maybe keep 4-5 5 gallon cans of gas on hand? Also, if you heat with wood, you will want some ready-to-burn wood available.
Last point that has not been mentioned yet: food. Make certain that you have canned or other non-perishable food available for an extended time period.
I could really go on and on but I will try to bring things to an end here. Eloise made a good point that all these suggestions could spur a buying binge. I would say that many of the items you will need are items you should have on hand anyway.
Good luck!
Eric