I was living in Staten Island when Sandy hit. It took months for parts of Manhattan to get their landlines back (flooding wrecked wiring). I couldn't get to the east side of Manhattan for months on end (flooding wrecked subways). It took weeks for the ferry to be running again.

Point is, it takes a long time for things to be repaired.

Even in the 2003 blackout which effected 8 states, it took 4 days to restore power in some places. People forget that because we literally INVENTED electric powered everything, much of our core grid is an old patchwork built over time. Part of what the Infrastructure Bill is trying to modernize.