Lightning struck close to our house

Doc

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Lightning got my cable modem and TV and garage door opener and more yesterday. Kinda of crazy here trying to get stuff to work. I'm online now but not sure how long that will last.
Cable folks will be here Thursday morning. Satellite folks will be here tomorrow. Both satellite receivers are out.

At least it was not a direct hit.
 

Erik

Member
check your breaker box -- some of the "dead" electronics may just be a case of tripped breakers. I've seen that a time or 2 when the tree next to a house got hit.
good luck with the insurance company & glad to hear no one was hurt!
 

Doc

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We were not home, so we are not sure how close it hit. I have already done the breaker box. All items mentioned above are still dead after resetting breakers. Like you said Eirk this didi bring a lot of the house back to life. Latest casualties to add: dishwasher and another computer. :(
 
Lightning got my cable modem and TV and garage door opener and more yesterday. Kinda of crazy here trying to get stuff to work. I'm online now but not sure how long that will last.
Cable folks will be here Thursday morning. Satellite folks will be here tomorrow. Both satellite receivers are out.

At least it was not a direct hit.
Sorry to hear about that, but how true on the not being a direct hit part. Every chance I get I'll pick up a surge protector for our place. Keep 2 on my computer. We had lightning strike near our house once before. Did a lot of what happen to yours, didn't hurt my pc.
 

olcowhand

Member
Lightning got my cable box a month or so ago. Got nothing else this time. About 7 years ago, lightning struck a hickory tree next to the house. I was in my shop nearby when I saw it get struck. I was about 75' away & it blew hickory nuts inside the shop at me like bullets! Went to see that everyone at the house was ok, but on the way I got quite a cussing from the resident squirrel in the hickory tree. Seems he blamed me! Anyways, it got my washer & dryer, 3 telephones, 52" projection TV, 12" TV, Cable box, all chargers like for flashlights & such that were plugged in, and more. Insurance covered almost all. BTW...split the tree down the trunk, still intact, but had to be cut down as it started dying immediately.
 

Doc

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A surge protector saved my laptop, only wish I had picked up more of them. I'll start now. Live and learn.
 

Doc

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I feel lucky our 57" projection TV did not take a hit. It got the Direct TV box that is plugged into the same power strip. But didn't get the TV, DVD player. That reminds me, I haven't checked the surround sound yet.

Still have not figured out where the lightning struck.

Don't you see lightning strikes out there CA? :confused:
 

olcowhand

Member
That big hit I took came in through the ground. Old steel water pipes brought it into the laundry room, then up the ground wires into the telephone & video cables. I assume all the electrical chargers & such came through the ground also. So grounding doesn't always help, in fact, this time it made things worse. Where it jumped from the water pipe to the clothes dryer, it blew the ceramic coating off the dryer about the size of a silver dollar!
 

California

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Don't you see lightning strikes out there CA? :confused:
No, extremely rare, except in major winter storms where trees are getting blown down anyway.

We never get summer rain in California, for example no rain since about last Easter. (The state runs on reservoirs and aqueducts).

The only summer lightning (and thundershowers) is on the inaccessible mountaintops in the Sierras etc, where it is a primary cause for forest fires. Almost no one is directly affected.
 

PBinWA

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No, extremely rare, except in major winter storms where trees are getting blown down anyway.

We never get summer rain in California, for example no rain since about last Easter. (The state runs on reservoirs and aqueducts).

The only summer lightning (and thundershowers) is on the inaccessible mountaintops in the Sierras etc, where it is a primary cause for forest fires. Almost no one is directly affected.

Doc, we just don't get that cool fork lightning on the west coast. Most of the lightning is sheet lightning.

I really enjoyed seeing the lightning storms when I lived in Orlando although it was a little hair raising when you drive down the highway and there is lightning striking on either side of the road.

I don't think the power utilities out here have to do as much grounding either.
 

EastTexFrank

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If you like forked lightning, come to Texas. Many years ago I was driving up I-45, between Houston and Dallas in a Mustang convertible. In the middle of a thunderstorm, there was the most almighty crack, the lightning forked above the northbound lane and hit the median and the road sign to my right about 30 feet away. It was a strange, strange feeling, every hair on my body was standing to attention. I don't know what would have happened if it had hit the soft top of that convertible.

I just cut down a 70 foot pine tree, about 100 feet from the house, that was hit by lightning last fall. You could see where the lightning had hit and it blew a 6 inch strip of bark off the trunk all the way to the ground. I thought that the tree might make it but I guess that it was just too much trauma. That's the second tree close to the house that we've lost in the last 10 years.

One thing that I did learn with all our storms though is that some circuits on our old house aren't grounded. They might have 3-prong outlets but there is no ground wire connected. If they get lit up, it doesn't matter if they have surge suppressors or UPS's on them or not, anything plugged into them gets fried. It took me a while to figure it out, and miscellaneous fridges, freezers, printers, radios etc., but I think I've got everything under control now. I've got a whole house surge suppressor on the incoming power and every ungrounded circuit I can find is now grounded. I haven't had a problem for about 3 years .... fingers crossed.

Then there's the friend of mine whose brand spanking new house, he'd only been it it a month, took a direct hit. But that's another story. :pat:
 

California

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But that's another story.

Oh come on! you can't leave us in suspense like that!!!!
 

BoneheadNW

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Doc, we just don't get that cool fork lightning on the west coast. Most of the lightning is sheet lightning.

I really enjoyed seeing the lightning storms when I lived in Orlando although it was a little hair raising when you drive down the highway and there is lightning striking on either side of the road.

I don't think the power utilities out here have to do as much grounding either.

You southerners! Lightning bold hit my neighbors tree as I was driving up the road. Sounded just like someone hitting the roof of the car with a sledgehammer! Very rare for this area. Remember: it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!
Bone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8
 

PBinWA

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You southerners! Lightning bold hit my neighbors tree as I was driving up the road. Sounded just like someone hitting the roof of the car with a sledgehammer! Very rare for this area. Remember: it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!
Bone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8

I didn't say we don't get lightning but I remember storms in Orlando where they would get something like 5000 strikes in the area in one hour. Combine that with torrential downpours and you get some extreme weather that is pretty rare for the Pacific Northwest.
 

OhioTC18

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My former SIL came to visit from Seattle. She stood out in a storm because she'd never seen lightning back home like we have here. Everyone told her it was dangerous to stand out there, but she was in awe.
 

urednecku

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I didn't say we don't get lightning but I remember storms in Orlando where they would get something like 5000 strikes in the area in one hour. Combine that with torrential downpours and you get some extreme weather that is pretty rare for the Pacific Northwest.

And don't forget the 40+ mph winds driving that rain. :hide:
 

ghautz

Member
Just saw this thread. Was gone for a couple of weeks. Doc, it's a good thing it wasn't worse.

A couple of years ago a lightning strike took out the telephone line surge suppressor in the uninterruptible power supply for my computer. Strange thing is that it is located on the far side of the house from the input. Had to replace the UPS. Shortly thereafter I put a whole house surge suppressor in my breaker box. I figured the couple of hundred bucks for the suppressor was good insurance.
 

Doc

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I just heard about the whole house surge protectors. They do sound like a good idea. A co worker said they are offered by his electric company. He has a different one than I do, not sure if mine offers it or not.
Did you get yours through yoru electric company?

Just tonight I found out both keypads for the garage door openers are shot. Neither one will work. Looks like I'm going to have to replace both garage door openers. :(
 
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