Doc wrote:
On Aug 12, 8:45 pm, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

My experience -- at least where I live -- is that the power is off for a
fraction of a second, or hours. There's rarely anything in-between.


In general, I'd say that's my seat of the pants impression too, though
not always. I also notice they'll often come in clusters.

The transformer - if that's the correct term for it - big gray
basically cylindrical unit on top of a power pole - near my house blew
once. Powerful **BOOM** and a huge column of flame. Not sure what the
fuel for the flame was, do they have oil in them? Also a bit
disconcerting since anyone nearby surely would have been in jeopardy
from flaming debris.

Needless to say, power was out for a while on that one.

TRMOAS (that reminds me of a story)...

Years ago, when Atari ST computers were common, friends of mine lived in
and old house with just such a transformer on the adjacent pole.
Buddy had been trying for ages to get his girlfriend to start learning
to use the computer, but she was always afraid she'd "break something".

Finally one day, he convinced her to sit down and give it a try. She
took a deep breath, put her hands on the keyboard... as the room was lit
up by a brilliant flash through the window, shaken by a magnificent
**BOOM!**, and the computer screen went black.

Poor girl was in a complete panic, she was SURE it was her fault...

As it turned out, a drunk speeding down the road outside in his van had
gone THROUGH two nearby power poles and finally stopped just shy of
hitting a third; the first impact brought the lines down and was
sufficient to explode the transformer just outside their window.

....took her years to ever touch a computer again