Strike Out...

honeybunny

Pursuit Driver
Just hanging out with the Kiddo yesterday when God decided we needed some electrical intervention...

Lightning struck our big beautiful antenna and did plenty of damage on the way down.

Lost the basement flat screen TV,
Fried the video card in the computer,
Destroyed the Nintendo power supply,
Murdered the DVD player,
Knocked out the internet...
(Comcast says 3 days before they can restore service.)

Probably a good $1000 in damages...
Thankful that nobody was hurt and it did not strike the structure, but this really puts a strain on our budget and means a lot less summer fun.

Just got out of a $$$$ hole from last summer's surgery and that bolt threw me right back down into the pit...
 
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Sorry to hear that... glad nobody was hurt or the house did not catch fire!

Does your insurance cover that...
Or is this one of those things: If you claim... it will cost more for the insurance than to replace the stuff yourself???
 
Wow...that sucks! Glad nobody was hurt or any further house damage.

Do you have a whole house surge protector? I don't know enough about them to know if they work for lightning strikes so I'm curious.
 
Sadly... a whole house surge protector helps with a power surge coming in from the elec utility... not from lightning striking the house or part of the house.

Whole house surge protectors are in reality an insurance policy from the power company...
And given how fussy home owners insurance is... may not be a bad idea.
 
Sorry to hear that... glad nobody was hurt or the house did not catch fire!

Does your insurance cover that...
Or is this one of those things: If you claim... it will cost more for the insurance than to replace the stuff yourself???

Our deductible is $1000...
 
Wow, that's crazy. Glad nobody got injured but sure hate to hear it's gonna hit the pocketbook.
 
Google lightning dissipation Array. Having used them for 20 years I can say they do work. Just make sure you have
a good ground system also.

Our neighborhood in Dallas went through a period that the lighting was doing just the same. Hitting houses and taking out household electrical and appliances. Many put something to ground their house. Seemed like once the trees started to grow taller than the houses, we had fewer strikes hit houses. (Took 10 years though...)

We had one neighbor's house that was hit by a lightning strike at around 3 am... it woke us up -sounded like a bomb. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window and could see the house on fire. The three story house was burned to the ground. It was such a hot fire they had to repour the foundation because it damaged the concrete. Luckily they were on vacation so no one was home, or they would have certainly died.

After we were hit and lost the computer, TVs, VCR, stereo and other small electronics I got in the habit of unplugging everything when we had large storms heading our way. We also bought some of those surge protector things that claimed they would prevent it...

Mother nature is more powerful than mere humans.

So sorry that happened.
 
Ouch! That's one if the down sides of having antennas, they are giant lightning rods. Going forward, make sure it's grounded properly (earth ground) and put surge suppressors on it the coax coming in.
 
Ouch! That's one if the down sides of having antennas, they are giant lightning rods. Going forward, make sure it's grounded properly (earth ground) and put surge suppressors on it the coax coming in.
Sounds like it was grounded or the whole house would have burned. We had a hit on a tree 75’ from the house and it still blew out an amplifier and n network switch and magnified my daughters tv screen. The magnetic field put off by that much current can induce damaging voltages in wires it never touches. Our church steeple has a heavy ground but each time it’s hit we lose the organ, sound equipment, security and fire alarm systems. Anything low voltage in the area.
 
Ground and more ground! I have somewhere around 10 ground rods in the ground,
and all are tied together with #6 copper. All grounds have to be connected together,
or there is a ground potential between them. If you take a hit and one item is
grounded to one rod and another item is grounded to a different rod there will be
voltage and if the two items are connected together (like in a network or tv ant
system) it will blow both items. Being in ham radio I have had and still have
towers with tall antennas. They all are grounded with multiple ground rods
and have a lightning dissipation arrays on top. The lightning dissipation arrays
work. Where I worked we put them on all antennas and discovered it made
a big difference.
 
Yes, the antenna was grounded.
I believe it was a "finger" of lightning and not the main bolt. We were very lucky. My daughter was standing in the kitchen. The antenna pole is mounted on the deck about 15 feet outside the kitchen window. It sounded like a shotgun blast.
 
Internet just restored... ($50 credit)
New TV will be delivered today... ($250)
New Nintendo power supply ordered... ($20)
Still waiting on prices for video card, DVD, and replacement antenna...

All in all... not as bad as first feared.
Again I am grateful that we dodged most of that bullet.

"Maybe God is trying to tell you something..."
 
Internet just restored... ($50 credit)
New TV will be delivered today... ($250)
New Nintendo power supply ordered... ($20)
Still waiting on prices for video card, DVD, and replacement antenna...

All in all... not as bad as first feared.
Again I am grateful that we dodged most of that bullet.

"Maybe God is trying to tell you something..."

About 5 or 6 years ago I was within 20 to 50 yards or lightning strikes 3 times,,, which left me wondering:
A. I'm a lucky son of a gun because I've been living right.
B. God's a little ticked and sending a message.
In any case, after the third incident, I went to church and stayed awake through the entire sermon!!!

Sorry for your loss, but on the bright side, you're replacing your stuff with the latest technology which you may enjoy more.
 
I once went trout fishing in a lightning storm and I've never been so frightened in my life. We burrowed into
a muddy bank and prayed. I saw something that day that defied earthly explanation. Still not ready to talk about that encounter...
 
I once went trout fishing in a lightning storm and I've never been so frightened in my life. We burrowed into
a muddy bank and prayed. I saw something that day that defied earthly explanation. Still not ready to talk about that encounter...
My dad doesn’t like to discuss his encounter with ball lighting one time when his house was struck. I researched it some and it’s freaky stuff.
 
I once went trout fishing in a lightning storm and I've never been so frightened in my life. We burrowed into
a muddy bank and prayed. I saw something that day that defied earthly explanation. Still not ready to talk about that encounter...

That almost sounds like it could be a Roger Miller song.
 
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