People warn about this all the time, but if you actually tried to do it, the generator would instantly trip its breaker since there is no way it can power an entire neighborhood.
For a normal installation - definitely, do it properly. But in an emergency? Just turn off your main breaker.
The thing to remember about the NEC is that it contains redundant safeties and huge margins because things are wired up once and then taken for granted for decades, even as assumptions change. You're most likely not going to kill anybody by backfeeding power through a branch circuit. You're most likely not going to burn down your house using 14-2 for the stove. You're most likely not going to electrocute anybody by tying the ground and neutral of a receptacle together. But when the failure mode is structure fire and/or death, do you really want to make a long term bet on 'most likely' ?
Its also worth saying not to run your generator in doors and not even in the garage. People die every year in Florida from Carbon-monoxide poisoning this way.
(at least every year there is a hurricane).
It is probably less of an issue up north since people are probably leaving their windows open rather than having them shut and the AC on, but it is worth repeating.
Open windows won't save you from CO out of a generator. A local family was in the hospital from CO poisioning after Sandy because they ran a generator in their garage. The gararge door was open, but the generator was near the house door. That was enough to allow CO to enter their house.
> It is probably less of an issue up north since people are probably leaving their windows open rather than having them shut and the AC on, but it is worth repeating.
Wouldn't they be wanting to heat their houses, instead?
For a normal installation - definitely, do it properly. But in an emergency? Just turn off your main breaker.