AUBURN – Richard F. Smith tried to prepare for high heating oil prices: He applied for home-heating assistance, he’s ready to seal off three unused rooms, and he has insulated his cellar and electrical outlets.

Despite all that, Smith, 75, expects to dip into his life savings to keep warm this winter, even with federal heating assistance.

“People are concerned, but what the hell can you do?” said Smith, who lives alone with his cat, Sam, in a seven-room house built in 1820.

With fuel prices surging because of Hurricane Katrina, there are no guarantees heating oil won’t hit an unprecedented $3 a gallon. And officials worry that federal heating assistance for the poor will fall short of what’s necessary to keep people warm.

“Three-dollar-a-gallon gasoline is an inconvenience and a hardship. Three-dollar-a-gallon heating oil is life or death,” said Beth Nagusky, director of the state Office of Energy Independence and Security.

A greater proportion of homes in New England use oil for heat than in any other region of the country. It ranges from 70 percent in Maine to 39 percent in Massachusetts.

Many residents avoided the sting of high oil prices during last winter’s bitter cold by buying contracts that locked in prices early.

This summer, with prices already high, many heating oil customers paid around $2 a gallon for contracts for this winter. Then Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, knocking out oil supplies and refineries and sending gasoline prices surging.

Heating oil prices spiked, as well, even though there’s a greater supply of heating oil than in the past six or seven years, Nagusky said.

“It was a good thing for the oil companies. They relish this. It is an excuse, an excuse, to up it,” said Smith, a widower who used to own a small grocery store, Smitty’s, in Auburn. “There’s no stopping it, and it’s a shame.”

Smith didn’t buy his oil ahead, partly because he finds lock-in programs confusing.

He paid $1.89-a-gallon to top off his 275-gallon tank this summer. Since then, the average price has climbed to about $2.50 a gallon in Maine.

In Massachusetts, the average is about $2.60 per gallon; in Rhode Island, it’s about $2.73; in Connecticut, the range is $2.31 to $2.46 per gallon; in Vermont, it’s $2.61 to $2.80.

New Hampshire’s average price was $2.67, a jump of 23 percent in a month and 65 percent in a year, said Joe Broyles of the state Office of Energy and Planning.

Broyles won’t hazard a guess about what oil will cost in the months ahead.

“There is nobody on the planet, or in the galaxy, who has a crystal ball big enough for that,” he said.

The last resort for people who cannot pay to keep warm is federal heating assistance. Last year, 47,000 Maine households received $24 million in payments, said Dan Simpson of the Maine State Housing Authority. But the average benefit was $480 – not enough to fill a tank at today’s prices.

There are not a lot of options. Firewood prices have shot past $200 a cord in Maine, about $75 more than last year. Natural gas prices are up, too.

Smith’s backup plan involves firewood. He has an extra bed set up next to his fireplace, and he’ll sleep in it if he has to.

“I’ll block off the room with the fireplace. I’ll close it right off,” he said.