Hi All...I've been out of touch for a bit as my house was struck by lightning and we've been getting on with repairs. It was a direct hit that damaged the house and took out nearly everything electrical. There was no fire, so we were lucky...just some damage to fix and a lot of new appliances to buy. No one was hurt although my hubby was here at the time and actually felt the strike in his body...totally freaked him out!
I write this here for you all because, I have been truly amazed at the amount of destruction a lightning bolt can cause and I'm hoping that you can all learn from my experience! Being that I'm married to a major engineering geeks, we had our computers on surge protectors and we had a lightning arrestor installed. We thought that would be enough protection! We found out otherwise.
Mother Nature scoffed at our puny attempts and the lightning blew right through the lightning arrestor and the surge protectors. It blew out things that were battery operated for heavens sake! We lost nearly 100% of the things in our house that require power to operate.
So, if you have electrical things you love and you live in an area prone to thunderstorms and haven't been where I currently am on this, my suggestion is go get surge protection and be redundant with it! The things that lived through it all at my house had two layers of protection such as being plugged into a GFCI outlet or on a power strip that was plugged into a surge protector.
Oh, and filing a homeowners insurance claim is less fun that doing your taxes! 🙁 Truly worth avoiding!
Yowza!
Olive you dont live that far from me! You must have been hit in one of the crazy violent storms to have moved through here last week. I used to live in NH on a farm and we'd watch lightening strike the barn in the severe thunderstorms. It was amazing!
Glad to hear that everyone is physically ok.
In terms of design it makes you wonder what would have happened if Ben Franklin's "lightening rod clothing" had stayed in fashion!
Material things are all repla...
Material things are all replaceable...good that was all! Appreciate you sharing, as I was completely unaware of the total devestation that can happen. Things battery operated must have been damaged from the electromagnetic field produced?
I'm aware this is rather strange...I'm fascinated with your hubbys experience. Could you get him to share it with us?
Stay safe!
Glad too you are all ok...
Glad too you are all ok Olive. I've read that a bolt of lightning carries a current of upwards of one billion volts. I don't understand electricity, but you won't find me outside saying "wow" with a kite and a key in a thunderstorm. We have had a few homes struck in this area this spring, several trees, and the occasional story of the unlucky cow.
Thanks for all the good cheer
We're fine. The house is on it's way to fine and now we get to have some fun buying new appliances. But man, oh, man, the sheer number of things that got fried! I am also taking the opportunity to search for the most energy efficient products I can find and I'm trying to stick to companies that have good sustainability initiatives. My small way of trying to offset all the items I am sending to the landfill. I found a recycler company near my office that will take all of the computer components and most of the things like microwaves, that helps a bit too.
So lesson learned, lightning is very big and very powerful and humans are puny little meat puppets! Luckily, we are more like resistors than capacitors or I'd still be cleaning hubby off the furniture! His description of the event was "a weird pressurized tingling in his limbs" for whoever it was that asked.
puny little meat puppets! 🙂
So true. What an experience!
I'm in the NE as well and some terrifying storms have passed through.
My father-in-law is a meteorologist and he gets many calls the day after.
Good news is that everyone and the house is OK.
I'm a bit obsessive about unplugging everything during a storm.
Confused about battery things? cell phone?
And daunting to research new appliances all at once!
Just spent the long weekend at our Catskill mnt place and a tree had
been hit. Not far from our Airstream (no house). Two appliances are toast.
I wonder if it is related? (just got home and researching toaster ovens and
my eyes are crossed)
A friend of mine wrote an interesting book a few years ago...
Stealing God's Thunder
"Pulitzer Prize finalist Philip Dray uses the evolution of Franklin?s scientific curiosity and empirical thinking as a metaphor for America?s struggle to establish its fundamental values. He recounts how Franklin unlocked one of the greatest natural mysteries of his day, the seemingly unknowable powers of lightning and electricity. Rich in historical detail and based on numerous primary sources, Stealing God?s Thunder is a fascinating original look at one of our most beloved and complex founding fathers."
An interesting read and fascinating subject.
The power of nature is out of our hands...
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com