How do you lose power with buried power lines?

Question

I just moved to a new community with buried power lines which gave me a false sense of confidence before the remnants of Ian hit. No luck though – we still lost power last night for several hours. How does that happen? Am I more or less likely to have power go out, and if it does out, does it typically take the same amount of time to restore? Halp.

In: 3

Answer 1

The lines underground are less likely to experience wind damage, but all the lines are not underground all the way back to the source. The lines from generating plants are almost always above ground. As are substations, etc. Your maintaining power depends on all those sections as well.