Index: spongenet/trunk/spongenet/parse.py
===================================================================
--- spongenet/trunk/spongenet/parse.py (revision 371)
+++ spongenet/trunk/spongenet/parse.py (revision 372)
@@ -33,4 +33,5 @@
 TEST_PATH = os.path.join("tests", "parse")
 XMLNS_PATTERN = re.compile(r"(\{.*\})(.*)")
+MISSING_VALUE = -9999
 
 
@@ -228,4 +229,6 @@
             tag = XMLNS_PATTERN.search(elem.tag).groups()[1].lower()
             self[tag] = elem.text
+        if "value" not in self:
+            self["value"] = MISSING_VALUE