In thunderstorm country the lights may cut out for several seconds. A "recloser" has protected the line. But if the strike is between the transformer and your service there is no protection. I made my own protector. Two plates of copper separated with .005" mica spacers on the corners. The house is disconnected via a high current knife switch. One day I returned from a mini vacation and found no power. Lightning had hit somewhere on the 250' service drop. The grounded copper plates were gone. The 10 gauge wire from the plate to a ground rod was gone. The above ground part of the copper plated steel rod was mangled. The 3 wire service drop was melted and mangled. I had to buy lengths of 6 AWG copper wire, and a new "mufa" with meter base for the service drop. It was expensive.
I also dissected a power management RV service box that had been hit by lightning. The inside was charred and smelled horrible.
