Yesterday we had some weird problem from the power company. First I
noticed the light bulbs were flickering. I looked in my breaker panel
and nothing appeared loose. This was happening in all parts of the
house and also in the garage (separate main panel).

Later in the day I was on the computer when I noticed the flickering
was getting worse. I was just thinking "I better shut off the
computer" when the lights suddenly got very dim. At that moment, my
CRT monitor made a loud crackling sound and the screen looked like
lightning radiating outward from the center of the screen. I
instantly shut off my power strip which shut off the entire computer
system. Seconds later the power went off entirely.

After the power was restored, I thought the monitor would be trash,
but it works fine, as does the computer and everything else that was
on at the time (mostly just lights). I shut off the main breaker
until the power was restored (put a neon tester across the mains from
the meter to let me know). I have always believed that when power is
restored. the surge of everyone's homes and appliances starting is
more harmful than when the power goes off). So, I just leave my main
breakers off till everyone else is up and running.

Anyhow, why did my monitor get that "lightning" across the screen?
Yea, I know it's the high voltage to the CRT, but why the crackling
and flashes? I'd think that the brownout voltage would just shut off
the monitor, but apparently not...... Any ideas?

By the way, the power company must have lost one of the main
transformers, or at least a main wire, because the power was out in
almost half of the county, and stayed off for 2 hours 40 min. That
flickering earlier in the day must have been caused by something
"cooking" in the grid.

One other odd thing. Maybe someone can explain this. After the power
outage, my house phone (landline) did not work. I got a dialtone, but
could not dial out. (just heard the dialtone while dialing, and the
dialtone had a real noisy hum in it). My phone service comes from
another county, so it was not a power problem to the company. But I
know that there are these phone distibution boxes. Are these phone
boxes using power from the grid to run them? When I have had power
outages just localized to a few block area (like when someone smashed
their car into a power pole), the phones still worked.

At least my cellphone worked so I could call the power company !!!