I've lived in several neighborhoods with underground power cables and you still lose power. In fact, our current neighborhood loses power quite frequently.

The reason is that underground cables go above ground someplace and your vulnerable there. In our case, I can walk 1/2 mile and see where our neighborhood's cable emerges, goes up a pole, then through a wooded area for a mile to the substation. It's the trees and branches in the woods that kill our power.

So, you have to look at the whole system. The system will fail at the weakest point.

But, let me ask a silly question. Is the choice really only between underground and the present above ground installations? Is it not possible to "harden" the above ground wires, poles, connections etc. to a higher standard so that the system can stand up to the winds etc.? If IzzyJG99 can harden the roof of a house with some nails and liquid nail here and there, surely we can harden the wires hanging on the poles. . . can't we?