Lived through two prolonged (over a week each) power outages in NJ years ago during Hurricanes Sandy and Irene. Vowed never to be crippled like that again. Bought a top-of-the-line portable Honda generator (eu5000is or something at the time) with 4 extra gas tanks and had a transfer switch installed. Luckily, never had to use it before leaving NJ for CA. Unfortunately for our old neighbors, they are re-living those scenarios all over again this week and I am getting ugly flashbacks to those freezing cold, miserable days without power. So yeah, I would say it is common enough on the east coast. I also remember massive price gouging at the hotels that still had power, 5 hour lines at the gas stations, and reports of generator theft all over the state. It did not take long for civilization to start fraying at the seams.
Looked into standby natural gas generators from Generac et al but they were limited by gas pipeline flow capacity. On our cul-de-sac, if only one or two other homes also chose to install such generators, there would not have been enough flow capacity during a power outage to turn them on at the same time. Plus the potential maintenance and repair issues with those devices, essentially gas engines mounted on a slab.
So yeah, I love my Powerwalls =)
