Post here if buried power lines would have prevented a power outage for you sometime in the last 10

[Edweird]

78. The transmission and distribution lines are monitored.

The only time those monitoring systems don't perform is in the case of catastrophic system wide damage.

As far as underground goes - a few years ago we had a particularly frigid cold snap down here in South Florida. Everyone went out and bought space heaters and overloaded the system. The people that were out the longest were the ones with underground lines. Not only is it extremely time consuming (and dangerous) to 'switch out' a pad mount transformer, but you have pretty much have to replace it with what was there. You don't have much latitude when it comes to size and type of transformer - the wrong one won't connect. With overhead lines I can make just about anything work if need be - I can even open the top and change the wiring configuration. FPL went through their entire stock of padmounts and was arranging an emergency shipment from the manufacturer. Additionally, when underground fails (make no mistake it *WILL* fail eventually) there is a lot of digging involved. A wood pole replacement is much less intrusive and destructive than an underground repair.