My poco has an automated reporting system. However, when my house loses power, it almost always affects the power for the transmitter sites of most of the TV stations in town. That gives me the perfect excuse to call our poco rep on his cell phone. Ahh...privilege!
A couple of years ago, an ice storm and high winds caused a 69 line to start galloping until the phases started slapping together every 30 seconds or so. The constant off-on-off-on continued for 20 minutes, which completely confused our ATS at the transmitter site. (My house wasn't happy, either...I threw the main off rather than risk losing a fridge or furnace.) When I was able to reach our rep, he had the control center kill the 69 line within minutes, and our ATS finally transferred to the genny. I can't imagine trying to explain that situation to someone that didn't understand power distribution.