For "have a pretty good idea of how it happened", than what also
protected those other undamaged electronic appliances? What protected
those kitchen and bathroom GFCIs? What protected the smoke detector?
What protected the dishwasher? How did those appliances without
plug-in protectors not suffer damage? Invisible surge protectors?

You are using same logic process that somehow proved childhood
leukemia from AC electric wires. Selectively ignoring other data such
as that undamaged microwave oven and furnace controls. Meanwhile,
demonstrated was how a plug-in protector simply provided lightning with
a destructive path through a network of computers. Shunt mode
protectors require earthing. No earth ground asks how does that surge
get shunted into earth? Via adjacent appliance. Or maybe another
appliance acts as a surge protector - shunts the surge to earth
destructively. IOW you only assume that protection works and
completely ignore that air conditioner control electronics that was not
damaged.

A method of making a kludge 'whole house' protector for apartment
dwellers was defined. Take a plug-in protector of maximum joules. Cut
its six foot power cord down to near zero feet. Plug it into the wall
receptacle that is closest to earth ground (and breaker box). It
becomes a 'poor mans' whole house protector. Best you can do if an
apartment owner will not install your 'whole house' protector.

But again, what makes that kludge solution into better protection?
Shorter power cord. Closer to earth ground. Increased distance from
appliance to be protected. What does a shunt mode protector do? It
shunts. Either it shunts a transient into earth (safely), or it shunts
a transient to earth, destructively, via the adjacent appliance. Or it
does nothing because the Tivo did that shunting.

Meanwhile: "getting through the AC surge protector" ? Do you think
some magical blocking device exists inside a shunt mode protector?
Incoming protector wire and outgoing receptacles are direct electrical
connections. Nothing 'blocks' inside that protector. Wall receptacle
connects directly to appliance plugged into that protector - a direct
wire connection. In fact, if a protector provides protection to its
receptacles, then protector also provides protection to anything
plugged into other side of same duplex wall receptacle and to other
wall receptacles on same circuit.

Nothing inside a shunt mode protector stops or blocks surges.
Protection is about diverting surges before surges gets to the
appliance. Protector is designed with transients "getting through the
AC surge protector". That direct connection is what wire inside the
protector does.

wrote:
I had a similar experience, where my PC and Fax machine, which were
connected to the strip type surge protectors including phone line
protection were undamaged. During the same event my Tivo, which did
not have a surge protector on the phone line, had the telephone/modem
interface blown out. Of course, Tom has told me that this happened
by the surge coming in the AC line, getting through the AC surge
protector, going through the Tivo, and then blowing the modem on the
way out the phone line. I think the rest of us have a pretty good
idea of how it happened.