As you know we recently experienced hurricane Irene- our neighborhood lost power for 3 days, in our neighborhood we all have wells and septic so without power the basic essentials are gone. The power went out at midnight and our generator kicked on, throughout the night while the rain was torrential and the winds gusting we had lights,air conditioning, water and essentials. The one critical item which we realized we had was our sump pump- while others in the neighborhood experienced 28 inches of water in their basements our pump worked throughout the night and the following days, our basement remained dry. The stories from the neighbors included loss of food and loss of comfort- showers, water damage etc. Because we had our whole house generator we did not experience any impact from the storm and were the envy of our neighbors. It has been the best investment we made for our home.