[FuriouslyAdrift]

Indiana here. Power outages due to fallen tree limbs, frozen trees "exploding", ice accumulation on lines, etc. is fairly common.

It can take days to bring a grid back up after a major outage. The lead time to replace a city-sized transformer is nearly 4 years, now (ask Puerto Rico about that).

https://www.powermag.com/the-transformer-crisis-an-industry-...

[bombcar]

It’s not really a question of urban/rural but more a question of “buried transmission lines” or not.

We have buried lines and have few if any power issues. richer town a bit over does not, and loses power once a winter or so.

[jabroni_salad]

Unfortunately that won't always save you. One of my clients spent a pretty long time unpowered because some creek bed froze (why did they bury thru a creek bed???). When I called for followup they advised me that the truck they sent to remediate had its hydraulics freeze so there was an additional delay.

[FuriouslyAdrift]

Buried cables are extemely expensive for urban areas (and dangerous over time). Downtown Indianapolis (like most city centers) has buried cables all over and we had exploding manholes for a few years as old main lines aged out[1].

If I remember correctly, buried lines in our area cost around $1 million per mile and they estimated something like $100 billion to do the whole city. It's also 10 times more expensive to repair when repairs are needed. That's why they use poles in less dense areas.

[1] https://www.wthr.com/article/news/for-fourth-time-explosion-...