Disaster - Lightning Strike!

[whirlcool]

I have been offline for over a week. We had a lightning strike at our house and it fried both my computer and my laptop in addition to the television sets, the microwave, stereo amp, satellite receiver and burst three light bulbs in lamps. Fortunately, the refrigerator, stove and dishwasher weren't damaged. But the refrigerator compressor does sound a little louder than it did before.
My computer wasn't even on, and the surge protector was in the "off" position, but the current "jumped the switch". The laptop was off, but was plugged in to charge the battery.
The circuit breaker box took a direct hit. It put a 3 inch hole in the side of it, and melted the wire leading to the grounding rod. Here in Texas, they put your breaker boxes on the outside of the house. Most places I have lived in different parts of the country have the box indoors, but here they insist on placing it on the exterior of the home.
The resulting surge was so strong that it literally melted the CPU and fan together into one piece. The CD & DVD drives are burned out too. Believe it or not, the hard disks initially appeared to be damaged, (Invalid Media message) but the new motherboard correctly identified the drives and had the right capacity so I was able to recover all my data using some data recovery tools. So all I had to replace was the motherboard, CPU, FAN and power supply.
I was very fortunate to have recovered my data. I have been using a hard disk to hard disk backup system. Quick and easy. But in this case I could very well have lost it all! I guarantee you, this afternoon I will be purchasing and external hard disk to back up to. Then I can disconnect it and store it in the closet when I am done backing up!

 

[exploder3211]

I hope your homeowners insurance coverd this.. oh my.. our renters insuracne does cover computer data loss as well. not sure what that means but it does. Also if you did use your home owners insurance, i would see if they would either check the fridge or give you money to replace it, like they did our dryer after it got wet when the filter flo flooded the laundry room.

 

[DADoES]

Always prudent to use an external backup media.

I have a breaker box outside the house, and another inside.

 

[brettsomers]

...which all reinforces my lightning phobia. allen, where were you and your family when the lighning struck? what was the immediate reaction? David

 

[appnut]

My braker box is in the garage, but on a wall that the back of is outside. In fact, all 3 of my houses, the box was inside.

 

[DADoES]

And Allen, be sure to DISCONNECT the external hard drive between backups. Or at least when weather threatens.

 

[whirlcool]

We were in the living room. I was on the phone to my neighbor. She was calling us to say that there was some pretty vivid lightning in the area. I was telling her that the storm was moving out and the thunder was getting more and more distant and the rain had already stopped. This is when the lightning strike occurred.
It was really just a big bang, and the wires in the wall let out a humming noise. Then the television went out, the light bulbs burst and that was it. Thank goodness I was on a cordless phone!
Since our subdivision is in the middle of a large open field, the electrician who installed the new box said that I should consider a lightning arrestor package.
I will be acquiring an external backup drive very soon! And it will be kept in the closet when not in use. I am still counting my blessings that I was able to get all of my data recovered!

 

[dalangdon]

My old apartment building had a direct strike once, while I was at home. It fried my TV, but that was it - but that building was an underground fed network service that had a lot more circuitry and plumbing to disperse the strike through, so that might explain why the damage was less. Suffice to say, it was both loud and scary.

As a utility worker, I always think it's interesting to see what code is in other places. An exterior breaker box would be forbidden here - although for some reason they are now allowing main breakers adjacent to the meter base. That might have something to do with the fire department, as they always pull the meter (or have us do it) when there is a fire in a single family home, and pulling a meter can be tricky business.

I'm glad your computer data was OK. There's nothing worse than losing all that data.

 

[goprog]

What data recovery tools did you use on your hard drive?
(Might be useful information to know.)

 

[paulg]

Direct hits - forget it.

Nothing to my knowledge can ever save a household from the damage from a direct hit.
I carefully unplug as much as I can prior to bad storms, then read a book.
Watch out for delayed failures. Make sure your insurance company RECORDS in their records that new, funny noises are coming from your fridge. I have heard of shortened compressor life after lightning strikes.

 

[toggleswitch]

Jolting experience

Oh boy.
Glad all of you are OK.

Here meters are both inside and outside, but breaker panels (UK=> "consumer units")are indoors.

I myself have whole-house surge-protectors that are connected to the house via the circuit breaker box with two circuit-breakers. (one for each of the two incoming hot-legs).I beleive there are also whole-house lightning arrestors that are similarly installed.

Light travels faster than sound. When lightining hits and there is a delay until one hears the thunder, it means the strikes are some distance away. Nearly simultaneous light and sound means it's close. Of course if you feel you hair stand up and tingling around you-- HIT THE DECK. Youz about to git a perm!

oh Allen this is no joke. and very seriously I am glad you and yours are well. Best regards, Steve

http://www.lightning.org/?page=home

 

[toggleswitch]

LINKS

http://www.lightning.org/?page=links

 

[58limited]

I had to have my breaker box and meter moved when I added to my garage. The breakers were outside with the meter. I had the breaker box moved inside, but the city insisted that the main shutoff breaker be outside - so that firemen could shut it off in an emergency. I later found that it was not a written ordinance in my town at that time to do that, but the electrical inspector would not pass it unless the main shutoff breaker box was outside. Technically I could have fought it but its not a big deal.

 

[58limited]

Oh, my friend's house got hit by lightning twice in a year - it blew his A/C both times and his satellite receiver. No other damage fortunately. We think that we have a photo of the lightning - it appeared in the paper the next day. The time of the photo and the location that it struck coincides with my friend's neighborhood.

 

[sudsmaster]

I once pitched a tent in the mountains above Yosemite Valley (Hetch Hetchy) on a rock prominatory. I lucked out... a thunder/lightning storm hit in the middle of the night. I just hunkered down in my tent (aluminum poles!) and prayed. No direct hits, lol.

Another time I tried to hike to the Na Pali valley on the coast on Kauai. Was driven back by incessant rain and reports from returning hikers that I would be wise to turn back. So I turned back and made it just across a small stream a mile from the parking lot. Decided to spend the night there, on a little spit of land between the stream, the ocean, and a cliff. Bad idea. That night a huge storm moved in, dumping many inches of rain on the "wettest spot on earth" at the source of the stream.

The lightning strikes got closer and closer. Soon there was no delay between the flashes and the crashes. I figured they were hitting the cliff above me. As soon as it got light, I looked for my watch and the floor of the tent seemed oddly puffy. I looked outside to see that the tent was surrounded by several inches of river water. Had to hang onto tree roots along the bank to get out of there, but made it out in one piece. Saw a crowd of hikers on the other side of the now-river who were now stranded. Made it to the "dry side" of Kauai where it took several days to dry out all my camping gear.

 

[whirlcool]

Goprog:

I used GetDataBack - Data Recovery by Runtime Software to recover my data. It's a pretty good product. I found it easy to use.

We had another power failure last night. This time for three hours. Shell shocked, we unplugged everything so it wouldn't be exposed to the "start up surge". I don't know what is going on in our area, but we have been having a lot of lights dimming and getting brighter, outages for 1 minute or less, etc.

The hole in our circuit box was the evidence the insurance company needed to cover our claim. Without it, they wouldn't have paid as "you connect to the power company at your own risk". If you look at the contract with the power company, it's in there too!

 

[exploder3211]

What on earth? Our renters insurance covers that stuff

 

[perc-o-prince]

Chad...

are you sure that you aren't talking about homoweners insurance? Am I mistaken or didn't you just tell us that you bought a two family house?

 

[exploder3211]

Our house

We still live in our apartment, lol.... Havent moved yet, it hasent closed, and won't until september due to issues beyond our control (they where headed into forclosure, we bought them outta it)... SO we have renters insurance now and when we move and get homoowners insurance i will make sure this is coverd.. I currently have Nationwide but they have sky high prices.. SO i will swtich to Liberty Mutual pending they cover everything i want.