There is such a thing as coincidence. The problems described may or may not be related to the storm or the primary power lines that were damaged a mile away. You could end up spending a considerable amount of time investigating this and never come up with a real good answer.

Trumpy makes a good point about surge protection. A robust arrestor at the service and some smaller units at the point of use has kept me out of trouble.
If you ever do find the definitive answer to this problem, please post it.

Tom

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.