And slightly related : a few years back, one evening the lights began to flicker, then the TV and hifi started blinking and clicking, and this lasted for a minute or two before the power failed completely.
When I tried to phone the power company, I had a dial tone with loud buzzing, and the dial tone and buzz gradually faded out to a dead line.
I went outside, expecting to see total darkness but only a few houses were affected, so went up to the nearby phone exchange expecting to see that in darkness, but it wasn't. I reported the telephone and electrical faults.
Next day it turned out that the mains cable under the pavement nearby had burnt out, and taken out the telephone cables that were running very close to it.
Power was restored several days before the phone was
The mad power fluctuations prior to complete power cut killed my ex-rental hifi midi system, which never worked again.
Ian