Last winter we had a bad wind storm and it knocked out power to our area. It also knocked out our furnace and I could not get it restarted, so I had to call in a serviceman to do that. I am afraid that this will happen again.

My question is: What happens to a gas furnace during a power outage? Does it shut down automatically? I know that without electricity the blower and electric gas ignition will not function. I have a 12 year old Lennox furnace and it seems to be working properly except for this time when it seemed to shut down when the power went out, and I could not restart it. I followed all the steps on the panel instructions, so I am not sure why I could not get it going. Is there someting about a power outage during a strong wind storm which can affect these types of furnaces so that they are difficult to restart?