My House Was Struck By Lightning....TWICE!!
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion Archive: Archive August 2005:
My House Was Struck By Lightning....TWICE!!
For those of you who remember back around Christmas 2003 when our house caught fire - I'm sure you will see the humor in this! Yes - our home was struck by lightning on the 14th and 15th - yes, TWO days in a row. I know this sounds nuts, but it's true. We just have extremely bad luck!
Even though we had these electronics hooked up on surge strips, we still lost our big screen TV, our bedroom TV, my computer, and our cordless phones. We were out of telephone service for 3 days, and out of internet service until yesterday b/c our Bellsouth modem got fried. We filed a claim with the housing insurance company and should be reimbursed soon for replacement value of the items (no depreciation) minus a $250 deductible.
I swear, God is sure giving Mike and I some big tests in our marriage - we're just waiting for a tornado, earthquake, or heck - a volcanic eruption from a volcano that doesn't exist - to demolish our house next!
So, I've been away from MV for awhile b/c of this, but I'm back and just wanted to say hello!
Oh my gosh! That is just unbelievable! I am so sorry for the run of bad luck you have encountered. I hope things look up for you very soon!
Oh my gosh, that is crazy! Well I'm glad you are all okay.
Oh NO! Thank goodness for insurance! {{{HUGS}}}
Geez, Amy! I was wondering why I hadn't seen you online!!!!!! Never, NEVER, say what will happen next!
Wow, that is just totally CRAZY, sheesh, maybe you are getting all of life trama all done at once. Hang in there.
Wow, that is a little streak of bad luck isn't it!?! I hope your done now, things come in 3's ya know! You should be safe for awhile.
Amy, that's just unbelievable! I'm glad things weren't worse.
That is horrible! I'm glad you have insurance that will cover most of it though! So sorry!
WOW! Can you get a lightning rod? Sounds really stupid, but man, what a PAIN?
Yikes! I can't even imagine! (((HUGS)))
Shaking my head... Are we related??? Because I think we share the jinxed gene..... Big hugs and glad you are back...
GUUURLL! What is up with that? I just can't imagine what you must be thinking...send big hugs ((((Amy and Family)))
I am so glad that you are all ok. {{{{{HUGS}}}}}
I didn't know that could happen. Do you have a lighting rod on top of the house or Ben Franklin's kite? LOL I thought there was something that kept that from happening to houses. Guess I have wistful thinking.
Yikes! Glad you are all ok.
WOW Amy you were probably thinking "That did NOT just happen!!"
Thank GOD it didn't start a fire! That is the last thing you, mike and the boys need.
I'm glad everyone is o.k. and thank goodness for insurance!
Wow Amy! I'm just glad you guys are okay.
Poor Amy, I can't believe it! After everything you have already been thru this year. Hon, it can only get better. Too bad Saturn did make t.v.s and houses!
Happy to hear you are all safe and sound.
Wow. Glad you are OK.
Ms. Insurance lady giving advice. Even though you have surge protectors, make sure you have surge protectors that cover your phone lines, too. Lightning loves to follow phones lines - everything Amy lost is connected to a phone line in some way. I assume the TV's were hooked up to a satellite dish.
Yikes! Glad everyone is okay.
That is awful. Do they know what would cause that? Do you have something on your house? Scary. I hate lightening.
Glad you are all okay. That had to be so scary.
Not in any comparison, but our van was struck by lightning once. My dh was alone at the time, had just come out from under a bridge and BOOM! He thought he was dead. But the van died and wouldn't start back up for about 10 minutes. He coasted off the side of the road. When it did start back up the entire electrical system was fried. When I called the insurance co, I asked if our insurance covered stuff like....acts of God. She laughed and asked like what. And I told her. She said it did and I was amazed.
Did the lighting strike the house or the power line or the phone line? Surge protectors would help n all three cases... The lighting arrestor would only help if the lighting hit the house.
Asked dh about it as he was hurry out the door. He should know being an electrical engineer.
Whole house surge protector -What ever that is...
Make sure everything is grounded.
Every outlet surge protector.
I thought there was something else.
Asked dh about it and as he was heading out he
Mumbled something about also telephones. (surge protectors on telephones? Lighting protectors for the phone. (surge protector he said)
Lightening arrestor for the house put in. for bad problems.... metal spike on a pole that sits higher than the house and safely draws the lighting down to the with copper wire. Only helps if lighting hits house not if it hits power line or phone line.
Heaventree - Lol @ Saturn making TVS...
Actually the lightning hit our house once and a tree about 10 feet from our house the other time. Beth - I don't have anything on my house that would attract lightning...it was just a weird coincidence I guess...typical for us!
Feona - I will definitely look into a surge protector for the phone, never thought of that and will put everything on surge protectors for that matter. We can't have a lightning arrestor I'm sure b/c this is military housing, not our own house, and they have these weird rules where you can't install anything on the house, not even satellite dishes.
Debbie, sounds like a freak thing with your van - what are the odds?!
Karen - I will never ever say "What can happen next?" I've learned that lesson!!!
Bobbie - you are jinxed too? We must be part of the same club. This is just ridiculous. I have to laugh sometimes...
Dora - can you explain in more detail about surge protectors, lightning loves for the phone line? I would like to prevent this from happening again. Any info I would appreciate.
Thanks to everyone for your support and concern. I don't know what's up these days for us...
But I just think of my favorite quote: "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."
Sure, Amy.
Here is a link to some lightning protection tips. There is also a picture of a device you can use for both your electrical cords and phone cords. I tried to find something that wasn't tied into my employer, but I didn't have time. Sorry if this violates any MV rules.
http://www.statefarm.com/consumer/electrichazards.htm
You will have to copy and paste the link since I haven't learned how to post a link yet.
Once my contact gets back in the office on Monday, I can provide a better technical explaination if you want.
Dora - thanks for that info, I read it briefly and it sounds like what I'm looking for. I'm going to sit down later on today and write the pertinent info down and make the changes asap.
Thanks!!
Lightning follows some very simple rules which are good to keep in mind:
(1)It just wants to reach the ground.
(2)It's looking for the easiest path to get there.
(3)The tallest thing in the area provides the easiest path and usually gets struck first.
Traveling through the AIR is hard for lightning.
Electricity prefers to travel through something metal.
SO...the secret of lightning protection is to provide an easy path (like a metal cable) to the ground (to a metal stake or pipe embedded deeply into the ground).
A lightning rod is just a metal spike mounted as high as possible(so it's the easiest path for the lightning) that is connected to a metal cable leading down into the ground.
Everything I've discussed is to protect you from the lightning strikes on your house that can cause fires. They won't help your electronic equipment if the lightning strikes a power or telephone line that provides service to your house.
If the lightning bolt (really a spike of high voltage electricity) has made it onto your power line or telephone line it WILL damage your electronics while it trys to find a path into the ground.
Surge protectors have electronic components that provide an easy path for the high voltage lightning spikes into the ground wire (third prong on your power plug) of your house electrical wiring.
Many newer surge protectors have plugs for your phone cords as well.
In order for these to work you should:
Avoid long extension cords (increase the resistance in the path to ground)
Avoid to prong adapters (which disconnect the ground wire)
Have an electrician check the grounds on your power outlets.
Most people can get by with the lightning protections provided by a surge supressor on power and telephone lines.
However, they won't protect you if the lightning directly strikes the house.
The only protection for that is one, or more, properly installed lightning rods.
John said if the lighting hit the house it could have caused a fire. Surge protector just protect the equipment.
Lighting rod would stop the fire from starting because it hits the rod not the house.
Is lighting a problem on base? Or was it a one time occurrence? If so then there is a safety issue for the whole base.
Like we don't have this problem around here. Because all the houses are the same height and there are very tall trees and tall things and we aren't in a heavy thunderstorm region. We get a thunderstorm once or twice a year.
If you have the tallest tree in the area it will attract the lighting.
As awful as losing appliances/tvs are, I am so glad it wasn't worse!!!
I'm glad everyone is ok and that they are going to replace everything for you. I'm sorry you are going through yet another disaster. Is it just military life that brings these things on? Because I sure have a lot of big disasters myself. Big {{{hugs}}} to you and your family.
Thanks John and Feona for the info. I'm going to look for a surge protector that has can connect my phone line. I'm also going to talk to the local housing office about what else I am "allowed" to do. There are many different sized houses in the neighborhood, and the woods are right behind our house, literally...
Kristie - it must be military life!
Glad everyone is ok, Amy!! What a pain in the butt that must be, though!
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