Most of the surge protectors that you buy at Wal-Marts, hardware stores, etc. will only protect from surges for a limited time. I found this out because for a while we were having problems several times daily with our power going off and on constantly and was told by power service tech that this can weaken them to the point where they are useless. I unplug everything and make sure the cords are nowhere the power source because I do know that electricity arcs and in a storm the amount of electricity produced can arc quite a distance!