240 Why

Frankly, if it were me...I'd hire an electrician and be safe and secure this would be repaired right.

For sure. Most people who come on here with electrical questions ought to do that. It's too easy to make a wrong choice.

1) There is no such thing as a so-called "leg" in a 120/240 single phase three wire system, it's a misnomer.
2) Unless you perform a systematic Megger test all bets are off.
3) Unless you perform a systematic continuity test all bests are off.
4) Unless you perform a systematic voltage test with a low impedance voltage tester all best are off.
5) Unless you used a Code approved and installed underground splice kit all bets are off.
6) Unless the entire installation was fully inspected and approved by the Inspection Authority all bets are off.
7) I could reference many more including bonding and grounding and circuit protection and ground fault requirements as per the Code, but I'm betting you have no clue so any further input I might provide would be hazardous to your health.

First guess Len, a drastic disruption. We'd suppose the two 110-v lines to be out of phase so the diff is 240 v. Sounds like L1 has shorted to ground while the neutral has become ungrounded

Complete gibberish; on a properly configured system, Line One and Line Two are always 18o degrees out of phase on a 120/240 single phase three wire system, and it's series aiding not "the diff is 240 v".

As to your claim of a so-called "a drastic disruption" that level of insight into power distribution troubleshooting is simply laughable. Again I could reference many more including bonding and grounding and circuit protection and ground fault requirements as per the Code, but I'm betting you have no clue so any further input I might provide would be hazardous to the OP's health and yours too if you think you know what you are talking about.

Do I disremember everything I had learned as an electronics writer and inventor

If the cable got joggled with the ground opening but at the same time somehow shorting to one of the power leads, wouldn't we then have 220 v across the two

Yup. Typical problem when doing repairs and a mistake is made when ground and neutral are disconnected before the hot wires. The neutral becomes hot just because a light in the house was left On.

And this will cause the burning of the motor of the refrigerator, the TV fuse, the computer and everything connected and working in the house when the neutral/ground was disconnected first in the main panel.

One of the hot wires is using the neutral as a hot feedback conductor.