If I am not mistaken this was the essence of the (fictional) 'blotto box'. The recipe entailed hooking a power generator into a phone trunk line and taking out the majority of a subdivisions phone circuits. I was written up in many of the phreaker/anarchy text mags that were popular at the time, but I never heard of anyone actually trying it. I'm also pretty sure the authors were not aware of things like fuses...

Brings back fond memories though.