Where I live (college town of 50,000+ in the PacNW) we lose power maybe twice a year in the city itself. Of course, if the weather is terrible (something that happens with some frequency in the NW) the lines might get blown down or what have you. Last year we had a terrible freeze-up that snapped some lines. But usually that's it. Very rarely will someone hitting a telephone pole put the power out, though that did happen to over half the city this summer.
When I lived on campus in the dorms the power was much less stable and went out at least once a term; it still does sometimes and results in cancelled classes. Why? They do a lot of electrical engineering research on our campus which can sometimes overload the university's grid. The research devices that cause the power to go out the most are now on their own grid, but some are not. Luckily all the heat on campus is steam heat, so it's okay in the winter.
