In most of my personal experiences and videos seen online, lights seem to go out during strong earthquakes.
Why? I can grab the cord of a lamp and move it around without the lamp turning off, and I don’t think it has something to do with the power company. During earthquakes, some of my friends who live in the same zone or city as me do not experience lights going out.
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A lot can happen during an earthquake. Debris from a poorly maintained building could fall on a power cable, severing it. A panicked driver could crash into a power pole or a power transformer. If the cables are underground, shifting soil or rock could cause them to shear apart, or a burst pipe could cause a short. Sometimes, the ground’s vibrations can even match the resonance frequency of a cable, making it move so violently that it snaps.
As much as a power company or city can plan for an earthquake, there’s always something that can catch people by surprise.
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