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Specifically, high voltage AC transmission lines (along a RR ROW?) snapped and the loose ends were being blown around by the wind. As I observed last night on Gab, the distinctive 120Hz hum of AC arcs was very obvious.
I'd say that the arcing occurred when the wind-thrashed HV cable ends came into contact with the ground and with adjacent wires and with other grounded objects (guy wires, metal poles, etc.).
Such a "main line" crosses our property, and I've seen it come down when trees fell on it, several hundreds of yards away. The cable is a copper-clad steel support core, with several 10-12 Ga aluminum conductors spiral-wrapped around it. When a section breaks, the weight of the cable can cause the line to sag between poles for a mile or so. And, if a breaker doesn't cut the power, the downed end can arc (vaporize) against the ground, etc, until the cable loses so much mass that the weight of the hanging cable drags it back and over the adjoining pole(s) -- until it drops, and continues the arcing. That's what I expect happened to the arcing line that "travelled" off to the left in the video.
I agree, there was inadequate circuit breaker protection in place.
There were several transformer explosions -- marked by the green flash of vaporized copper. Not the case here, but those green transformer flashes often occur during fires in industrial areas -- and, they are a well-known marker for the progress of a tornado across the countryside...
For sure, that was an excellent display of how broken HV transmission lines (as in CA) can readily initiate brush and forest fires...
TXnMA
