Hey, I'm typing this on my phone, so please excuse any mistakes. I've been a longtime lurker, and registered to respond to this post - I'm in connecticut and going through the same thing. This is what I've been doing:
First , I'm not worrying about the lights or filters right now, just mainly worried about the temperature. We normally keep or tanks between 78 and 80 degrees. The goal during the outage is to keep them above 70, preferably around 75. I stopped in at pet smart sunday (they were open) and the guy there didn't really have any suggestions to help me, but said most tropicals would be okay with waters in the 70 range, but once you get into the 60 s fish wil start dying. When we started heating water our tanks were at 68. We went to iparty in manchester (all the shops by the mall have power if you live close) and bought a wire chafing rack, a disposable metal pan to fit in it, and sternos. To light the sternos, take the lid of and drop in a lit match. You can then heat water in the pan for your tank.
I basically siphoned about half the tank water out of the tank and heat it until it is pretty warm, but I can still put my fingers in. I use a two cup measuring cup to pour the water back in the tank, making sure there aren't any fish around. Pouring it this way also helps some more ozygen get into the water I figure.
I've been doing this since yesterday, every few hours. We keep the tank wrapped in towels and a flannel sheet to insulate it. Also, we moved all the fish into or bigger tank so we only have one tank to worry about (we moved 8 neons into a breeding cage to put in the big tank since we have angels in the big tank).
The materials cost less than 20 bucks. I am also using seacgem prime when I add the warm water back in, to help control ammonia, etc. since no running filter. Also testing water - may start using some tap water depending how long we are out of power.
Also, in case it's a concern, it is perfectly ok to use the gel sterno (NOT the kind with wicks) inside, I worked in catering and we used 10 or more during banquets..
So far we haven't lost any fish, I wish you luck!