Wouldn't a house on Long Island have it's plumbing in the basement and otherwise not on an outside wall? I would that that would be enough to not have pipes freeze.
If there is a basement that is a big plus but keep in mind pipes still run up to the first floor mostly from the basement but to the second floor in an outside wall. However even that is just one style home and a basic one. Also keep in mind power failures will even affect the first floor pipes.
Many homes have extensions on them, and pipes run through either unheated crawl spaces or slabs. Anyway, many homes are also on slabs. And pipes run along the inside wall with baseboard and again up to the second floor.
Over 17,000 homes just on its own built in the 1940s/1950s were slab homes by Levitt. Had in the slab radiant heat eventually converted to baseboard as the copper in the concrete corroded.
However even people like a family member of mine, had a tri level home on the water, I am willing to be at least 3 times in 30 years he had a baseboard pipe burst on the lower level slab family room. By no means were all homes affected, but it certainly was a bit of a disaster taking into account all the homes on the island.
Building standards and insulation requirements have advanced since those days but it's still an issue, all it takes is a small unheated area like someone in this forum just suffered. To this day, homes here in the south, pipes freeze because extreme cold wasnt taken into account. Good news is the stronger PEX has a much higher burst rating than copper. Alot of pipes here are run through attics and unheated areas. In my old home, which was bought new in 2006. was 3000 sq ft. right above the master bath on the main level, in a small section of unheated attic the pipes froze because it was never accounted for that the temperature could go to 11 degrees there in SC. good news was, PEX pipe didnt burst, not even sure where it froze but clear up itself.
My new home now on the coast, I think about it all the time, instant water heater is mounted outside the house, that is ok but some pipes run through and above the ceiling of the garage to the main part of the house. Sure they have foam wrapping but if in a power failure I have no idea what might happen. Plenty of people get frozen pipes here still but PEX was the answer, vs copper of the old days.
BTW even though Long Island is an island, there are over 1 million homes on the island, leaves a lot of room for error. Most of them old, many were built with no insulation at all in the walls or the old thin rock wool. I remember my dad had a company come and blow insulation in the walls, they cut round circles under the siding and blew it in. Others in later years had foam put in, still others maybe none still. BTW - these arent outdated shacks, though they are small many built in the 50's and 60's I am talking about sell well over $600,000 in todays market, lucky if you can find a tear down or complete fixer upper for 400 to 500k
