We live on Reno Road in NW DC and did not lose power in the storm, only to have it go out on Saturday afternoon. Then we were without power until yesterday (Wednesday). We had to leave town and stay at a hotel.

we got ours back within 16 hours and we live on a small cul de sac ... not a function of the street you live on - is a function of what nodes you plug in to.

I wouldn't move to Montgomery County if you fear power losses. We heard about all the Pepco problems and bought a house in a neighborhood with underground cables. No luck, our power upstream and downstream is on older infrastructure surrounded by trees that never get trimmed. No one out here gives a hoot about tree preservation and these are not historic trees. Our power goes out all the time and it takes Pepco forever to restore it.

Yes, *generally* you do get your power on sooner. However, it depends upon what is on your busy street and the kinds of facilities that are on your shared grid. When we lived on a grid that shared power with a hospital, we got power back very quickly, even though we weren't on very busy street.