Power goes out every time it rains

[The motor guy]

The last 4 thunderstorms we've had the power has gone out. I mean. It goes out and stays out for like 3hrs. I guess one of those was someone hitting a power pole, but still it's ridiculous. This morning it started storming bad and I was like here we go again..... Didn't go out this time. Maybe they finally relocated that transformor to a new location so the lightning doesn't hit it for the 4th time in a row. Opinions? I mean Sometimes it can't be controlled but you would think they would fix it for good. Obviously their is a problem for it to go out that many times in a 3 or 4 month period. I guess in this house I'm not on the same grid as the 911 call center anymore.

 

[Andrew1972]

If you still have running water(no well pump) 3hrs is not a long time.

 

[mclasser]

My old neighborhood had the same problem. It was an old development with all above ground lines. My current development has underground lines and the lights always stay on -- be it rain, sleet, hail or snow.

 

[HangFire]

Have the trees recently reached maturity in your neighborhood?

Over the years, our power has gone through cycles of reliability versus every storm outages. Since a few years ago when the electric company got really aggressive about creating strangely shaped trees near power lines, it has gone back to high reliability.

 

[The motor guy]

Yeah we have tons of oak trees that grow through the power lines.

 

[4wd]

Transformer behind me was hit while I was telling kids to get out of the pool - parts of it splashed right behind them (Near Miss) …
When I talked to the power company - all I would up doing was running my supply line under ground but the new transformer is still there.

I have had the same oak tree hit twice and it got a big TV the first time. Wood off the tree damaged the rear fender of my GMC.
Electrical guys tried to sell me a high dollar kit. I put the new TV on GFCI and they laughed.
Second hit I tried the TV … nothing … checked GFCI and sure enough it did trip. Reset and all good. The hide has grown back twice on the same oak tree.
(so much for the twice theory)

 

[supton]

Time for a generator? Few hours isn't that bad, but it is annoying if there is no water pressure. Maybe just keep a tank of water around to refill the toilet tank and keep a few gallons of water around for drinking and cooking.

 

[RayCJ]

My community has all underground power and we were losing power every time there was a significant storm. Each time it happened, the power company had to scour the entire neighborhood and reset the ground level transformers located about every 10 houses apart. Power would be out for 1-2 days each time this happened. After 15 years of this, all the underground cable and transformers were replaced. It was a 2 year project but we haven't had a single outage since then.

About 20 years ago, my wife and I were standing on the back porch just as a tremendous thunderstorm was rolling in. Suddenly, the air smelled unusual; a split second later, we felt static on our hair and BOOM-FLASH. We had no time to react. We felt the heat, our ears were ringing and we were "snow-blind" for a solid half minute. That was a doozie! Lightening struck about 75 ft away hitting one of those ground level transformers between mine and my neighbor's house. Blew it to smithereens. We, and all the neighbors around us, lost ever major appliance in the house. Even the lightbulbs, fans -even things that were not turned-on. Only a few things protected by surge strips or UPS survived.

Will remember that one till the day I die...