I'm not sure those "power strips" are much protection against anything but occasional static bursts, but I seriously doubt they'd be much help against lightning anywhere near close. When a thunderstorm is nearby, I go around and unplug sensitive items - especially electronics. They can be damaged by a close strike even unplugged, I understand... but we do what we can.
One of the dangers I was not aware of until a few years ago is the occasional LOW voltage. If things like compressors in the refrigerator are running and this happens, it can damage them -especially over time. Anyway, this is what I've been told.
The question, then, is what can be done to protect them? Currently, if I see the lights dim, I unplug the refrigerator until the lights are steady again for at least an hour or so. This has only happened a few times, but I am concerned about it happening when I'm not home. Is there some sort of protection device for that?
Off topic, I know... but then I didn't start it. 
Ahh, what to do about a 5-10 amp load and line sags. Always the easy questions.
Well, the kludge would be to snake your hand in and dial down the fridge to like 2-3 if its on 8-9. This prevents it from
kicking on every ten minutes. The downside is, after 4-5 hours things may tend to thaw, and you may tend to forget
if the electric storm is causing distractions.
Another widget is a voltage controller for your fridge, plug it into the wall, plug the fridge into that. The idea was that
these cut down the startup surge and lowered power consumption on old fridges. They also tended to keep the lights
from dimming as much if your local grid power was bad, or your generator was wimpy. If lighting hits, its a solid state
device and tends to blow up before the fridge.
They also do make MOVs(surge suppressors) that clip right into your breaker panel. One side hot to neutral, and other
other side hot to neutal. If you want neutral to ground I think you would have to manually wire it in rather than just
snapping them in. The idea was you don't have to surge suppress every outlet.
The last alternative for line sags, really big honking coils. Small ones are the size of a breadbox, big ones are the size of
mobile homes. Considering the cost of copper these days, I hate to think what they cost now. In the 90s a small eighty
pound one was a few hundred bucks. Probably why battery/inverter backups are the soultion from pretty much everyone.
Flywheel backups, some places have em, never seen one. Come back in forty years maybe they'll have a hardware store
version.
Now, back onto topic. What are the particular indigenous irritations of wyoming for a new person ? No booze on sundays,
fireants, carnivorous squirrels, armadillos, large flying birds that attack shiney things, gas stations closing on sunday at 4pm?
