Utility services we take for granted might start scaling back in areas where the population cannot afford to maintain the services in the face of constant and devastating climate catastrophes. And once that starts to happen and the flow of information is throttled, how long before decay sets in? How long before, for better or worse, regions become less connected and more autonomous? Could we slowly slide apart? Will DC become a world away? With less real time information, how many other things will decay because they are no longer relevant to the state or central authorities (roads, sewer lines, etc).

Storms in the area, out for five minutes or ten minutes.

Dystopia. COULD CLIMATE CHANGE BREAK UP THIS NATION? DUH! Jesus, you just figured out the real threat while the money is still directed toward the petty shenanigans of terrorism. But you still seem to think that it's a grand conspiracy of the extreme rich.

I'm not sure what you are talking about.

Climate change is real. It will kill billions. It may do so in my lifetime. It is an existential threat that will severely impact my children and change the way we live across the globe. It is the most important issue of the 21st century, and everything else in comparison is trivial. That's how I feel about it

Not subject to lightning strikes.
But power coming in is on poles with transformers.

Increasing complexity of a network may make that system more susceptible to chronic massive failure (think Northeastern power plant). Even in areas that have quite a bit of resilience, they are as strong as the weakest necessary link (and the problem could come from the neighboring regions that supply the power). Maybe things will be fine though. Maybe America will look like Detroit.

we had something like that happen last year, after we got it re-aimed it rarely goes out in the rain

Has to be a pretty big system moving through to block.
That's happening more and more.