I back feed!! Yep, and I figure I'm smart enough to trip the main incoming breaker. I'm also not about to light up my neighborhood (that is, attempt to) with a potentially energized breaker. Also, any danger to linemen - not gonna happen. My former BIL worked as a lineman and he said that they 'fix' the gen owners by grounding the system they are working on at the time until it has been fully repaired. My gen, purchased mainly for my RV, is an 80 pound inverter generator, 3600 watts, replacing the 200+ pound thrashed out 6.5KW. That 3600 watts will run the furnace, boob tube, the nuker and a bunch of lights tho not necessarily all at the same time. It wont run the stove though.

Irene is expected to produce heavy rains and some stiff winds though not be totally devastating here. Of course, that could change, especially with a bunch of hundred foot, 4-5 foot diameter oaks in my back yard.