HARVARD, Massachusetts — In its coverage of a massive ice storm that left residents without power, The Harvard Press here noted that one family was able to keep the lights on thanks to rigging up its Toyota Prius as an emergency generator.

John Sweeney told the newspaper that he ran his refrigerator, freezer, TV, wood-stove fan and several lights through his Prius for three days on roughly 5 gallons of gas.

"When it looked like we were going to be without power for awhile, I dug out an inverter [which takes 12-volt DC current and creates 120-volt AC from it] and wired it into our Prius," he said.

The setup allowed the engine in the vehicle to run every half-hour, automatically charging the car battery.

"We're not sure whether we should be bemused or horrified," was the response from Toyota on the corporate Open Road blog.

"This isn't, after all, what the Prius was designed to do," wrote Jon F. Thompson, editor of the Toyota Open Road blog. "It certainly isn't something we ever would recommend."