Including Fran in 96, we've had 4 events which have wreaked the power distribution system around the Raleigh, NC area. Since the 1st high voltage 3 phase feeder switch point for the distribution out of the local substation is on "my" pole I get lots of trucks in front of my house during these times and at various other times. Every time I or a neighbor has asked about underground power making this easier, everyone working on the repairs has said they would rather do a "Fran" every year than deal with underground power. And this is from the mouth of someone who's on their 3rd 18 hour day in a row. It always has more problems, insulation always leaks at some point, and when there is a problem it's 10 to 100 times more difficult to fix.
As I understand things from the previous post about the Queens outage, it's mostly underground power there. And to make matters worse, the airport wound up to 1000s of uncollected and/or mis-routed bags. And trying to deliver them to people when the power is out around the area just makes everything worse. Many folks with in house cordless phones (and that's all they have) are discovering the reason some of us keep those old WE 2500s on a shelf in the closet.
The folks on the TV show This Old House have said that there are still hollowed out wooden logs carrying water under some streets in Boston.
As a side note related to my comment about the switch point being on my pole. For some reason my transformer is connected directly to the substation side of the feeder line while most all houses and businesses are connected to local stubs fused to the feeders. It's nice to get power back when 99% of the area is still dark.