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[WoodMOJoe]

Love those ice storm pics. I live right on the edge of the mountain where the warm air from the east hits the cold air from the north. Nothing like laying in bed when the trees are popping and cracking. ...
I backfeed through a homemade plug on my heat pump outside unit, not code at all.. 

Wow, I had kinda forgotten about the trees popping, cracking...and falling!

We would shut the generator down at night and it was like gunshots going off randomly for 2 or 3 days.

The weird (lucky) part was while the ice brought down thousands of trees and power poles the roads didn't get too slick and the temps never got below the teens for a couple weeks, that allowed the utility crews to travel and make repairs in fairly decent conditions.

Here's another look at Jan. 2007 in SW Missouri.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzoB1jUzp2I

[smithbr]

What I didn't see anyone throw into the mix is a Generlink:

http://www.generlink.com/generlink.html

I had my electrician install one at the old house, after 10 years of backfeeding the house via a dryer outlet and a male-male cord.   Dead simple, my wife was so pleased, as I was traveling a lot on business.  That was in 2008 or 9, I think.  We're not at that house any more, but it's still there.  Powered the whole house from an 8k gas gennie through several outages (she just had to remember to not turn on more than one of the dryer, the oven and the HW at the same time...).  Built in transient protection, certified, protects the line crews and the homeowner.

Just a happy user.