Don't the cable companies have a direct feed from the station to their head-ends? In most markets they do... for this very reason. I live in an area right between 2 markets, and we get both on cable. The cable company seems to have direct connections with all the stations in both markets. Anytime an ice storm, lightning storm, power outage, routine maintenance, etc. knocks out a transmitter, the stations are still available on cable. The only time you completely lose a station is if the station or cable company themselves lose power -- but usually that's just for a few moments until the backup generators kick in.
It's also a good idea for the station(s) involved, because what the heck are their employees supposed to do while there's nothing on the air? If WYOU wasn't already sharing a newsroom with WBRE, the entire news department would just be sitting around, all dressed up with no place to broadcast. The sales department would also have nothing to do, because you know once they get back on the air, it's gonna be Makegood City. Terrible time for their traffic department to deal with that -- I'm sure they're already booked solid up until Christmas, and we all know the value of broadcast advertising plummets December 26th.
Even if there are cable companies that pull in WYOU's over-the-air signal with an antenna... they're just going to have to do the same thing with WBNG. That's a task that could be difficult, if not impossible, depending on the terrain. It might be easier and quicker (read: cheaper) for some cable companies to get the necessary clearance to pull in some affiliate that offers its signal on satellite.
