...they don't have the capacity to run the equipment they are connected to or you can't afford to run them.

We just had a 7 day, 4 hour long power outage in the area where I live as a result of the tropical storm leftovers of Hurricane Irene.

I've been in full-on Emergency Management mode for much of this time, and time and again, I've heard the same story:

"The generator didn't work when the (well pump, freezer, septic pump, hot water heater) kicked on."

It also gets EXPENSIVE. If you have $300 worth of food in the fridge, and you need to run a generator for 7 days 24/7 to keep it on, it's often cheaper to just call the food a loss and run the generator intermittently.

OK, back to my day job and my emergency management job..it's raining hard again..and it looks like we're headed for the 4th river flood of 2011 - it's never flooded more than twice in a single year since records have been kept..