The weather forecast on Monday, September 15, 2003 was not encouraging: Hurricane Isabel was churning through the Atlantic with category 5 wind speeds in excess of 160 miles per hour. Worse yet, Isabel was projected to make landfall on North Carolina's Outer Banks and to then sweep upwards, eventually passing through our hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. The projected path of Isabel cut a swooping left-hand uppercut through the mid-Atlantic states, and Charlottesville was dead center on the trajectory.


The forecasters were predicting we'd receive anywhere from 6-12 inches of rain and winds in excess of 60 or 70 mph. Considering we've already suffered through one of the wettest summers on record, that kind of rain meant certain power outages and dangerous flooding throughout Central Virginia. So in preparation for the big hurricane, we made sure we had the essentials: batteries for flashlights, bottled water, and our favorite new Crutchfield product, the Xantrex Powerpack 400 Plus.

If you didn't get a chance to read Ken Nail's review of the Powerpack 400, here's a brief summary of what this handy device can do: The Powerpack 400 combines a rechargeable heavy-duty battery pack with a 115V AC inverter, a 12V DC outlet, an air compressor, a built-in flashlight, and jumper cables. This boombox-size device can supply up to 320 watts of AC output.

The appeal of having the Powerpack on hand when Isabel swung through was obvious: if the lights went out, the Powerpack could power a radio or small television and allow us to stay up-to-date on the storm's progress. Although Isabel was downgraded to a category 2 hurricane before making landfall, we were told to expect to lose power and deal with flooding. So with our Powerpacks charged up and ready to go, we left work early on Thursday, September 17 to go home and wait. What follows is an account of how each of us made use of the Powerpack 400 in the wake of Hurricane Isabel.