Blackout protection with solar batteries

Earlier this year, my family were out of electricity for 4 days due to Cyclone Alfred. Today the big storm triggered such a bad memory and led to my decision to install solar batteries for our existing solar panel system.

So my question is about your experience to use solar batteries during grid outage. Does it really work for you? And can the battery be charged by my PVs during the outage, or do I need to rely on whatever leftover in it?

Thanks!