[foobarian]

Don't houses have spark gaps for that sort of thing? I don't remember this being a problem since I was a kid, when we used to have to unplug TVs and modems

Edit: come to think of it that's when I moved to New England so it could just be the nonexistence of lightning here. Which I do miss.

[zdragnar]

My parents lost their treadmill during a storm in a midwest US house built circa 1998. I think the power came as a surge through the grid rather than directly from the environment, though.