Bolt hit about 50 yds away according to next door neighbor who saw the strike. Bedroom closest to the strike lost TV. Also Lost dryer and water heater. Next day found leak under kitchen sink. Metal flex pipe on hot water side fried at rubber gasket in coupling.

I’m guessing that copper water lines in attic acted as an antenna and picked up EMP surge and channeled it to dryer, water heater and sink. TV absorbed surge through the air and fried something. All wall plugs OK. Could have also been a “streamer ” off the main bolt hitting the house too I suppose.

Metal roof prob protected up stairs electronics.

What else should I check? Should I ask an electrician to inspect house? Any other advice?

Call a trusted electrician. Should not take long and he can buttress your insurance claim. My idea is to use your guy rather than whatever your insurance suggests. Remember they will depreciate your appliances and if they are picky will want receipts.

Lightning took out our well motor, wire and controller some years back. Insurance paid the claim.

We had a similar problem several years ago and the adjuster said it could take several months for the refrigerator to show damage. He told us to call if it did and we would get another check.

Wh had fiber optic phone service and as a result I had to purchase two pulse to tone converters to continue to use a couple dial phones (Western Electric 302 circa 1946 upstairs and a Western Electric three slot pay phone by the pool table downstairs)as our devices.

Lightning strike in the backyard of a home probably 300 feet away took out the one upstairs literally the furthest one away from where the phone service enters the house in the basement.

Go figure.

Voltage surge war story:
Several drunk idiots managed to throw a chain over the high-tension line that served their small subdivision. The resulting zap damaged the electrical systems and appliances in nearly every house in the development. The total monetary damages were staggering. The felony charges were staggering, too with lots of jail time.

Just beginning to get to know my new computer that replaced one toasted in a recent storm. Lots of lightning all around. Old computer on surge protector which was still working and had no damage to anything else connected to it. But computer fried. Go figure.

Lightning hit near mine a few weeks ago.
I list all my TVs, my video camera security system (5 of the 6 cameras)both of my computers and 2 of the repeater hubs.

OP, I have a 32” TV we were gonna put on FB market, but it’s yours if you want it.
My email is in my profile. I live in Temple, but I’d be willing to meet ya 1/2 way

Thanks all of you for the good advice. I plan to have an electrician check the house.

quote:

Originally posted by amals:
Just beginning to get to know my new computer that replaced one toasted in a recent storm. Lots of lightning all around. Old computer on surge protector which was still working and had no damage to anything else connected to it. But computer fried. Go figure.

Are you using WiFi or a cable connection to the Internet? If a cable, that may have been the carrier of the surge.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:

quote:

Originally posted by amals:
Just beginning to get to know my new computer that replaced one toasted in a recent storm. Lots of lightning all around. Old computer on surge protector which was still working and had no damage to anything else connected to it. But computer fried. Go figure.

Are you using WiFi or a cable connection to the Internet? If a cable, that may have been the carrier of the surge.

flashguy

Um, I'm not sure. I had AT&T U-verse. I recently "upgraded" to fiber optic. There are a number of cables going into and out of three different things. Two of them are fastened to the wall near my old phone jack, and look like phone jacks. There is also a little device, a mini-tower, on the floor (a router? a modem? both?) that has a power supply or transformer connected to it. I'm not sure what does what. I do have WiFi in the house, but I also have an ethernet cable that runs from the little device to the back of the computer.

A nearby lightning strike can raise the ground voltage by a lot, particularly if a ground wire is connected to a buried metal pipe that is very near the lightning strike. Since most appliances are now run by computers and electronics that run on millivolts, they can be fried easily.

quote:

Originally posted by Nuclear:
A nearby lightning strike can raise the ground voltage by a lot, particularly if a ground wire is connected to a buried metal pipe that is very near the lightning strike.

Isn't that exactly the technique that is the common practice used to ground your house and everything in it, so that lightning striking your house travels to ground? I'm almost certain mine is that way. Seems unfair the voltage could sneak in from the very means meant to disperse it safely going the other direction. No way to win?

Lightning hit my dad's neighbor's house years ago. It fried everything in the neighbor's house, and fried all the computer controlled appliances in my parents' kitchen which was immediately adjacent to the neighbor. Mom got a new oven and a new microwave. The range-top survived as it was just a "dumb" control system.

I am not an expert, but I think lightning is so high voltage that the grounding system can't shunt it all into the ground, so some gets in anyway. Without the ground cable, all that would be passing through the house, setting things on fire.

Lightning hit near my bro's home once, nobody home except one of his kids. He smelled smoke and the dryer was on fire, put it out. had he not been home, the place would've been gone.

(Come to think of it...his house sits on a bluff overlooking a great lake. An adjacent neighbor down below was careless with a grill and started a huge fire sweeping with the wind across the bluff, shrubs, beach grass, etc. I think the fire dept arrive to keep the flames from topping over the bluff and the fire passed his place and eventually simmered out. I think the FD was pumping as much water as they could. Another close call.)

Boy, does this bring back some bad memories!

It was Summer, July 1976 in Richmond, VA. Temperatures were 95 - 100 degrees each day. We left on a Saturday to go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a week - leaving the house unoccupied. We did not know it, but the afternoon after we left, there was a serious thunderstorm. Lightning struck a tall pine tree that was only about 10 - 12 feet from our house. The lightning caused several circuit breakers to trip, removing power to all kitchen appliances as well as other circuits in the house.

When we returned a week later, as soon as we opened the door, a horrible stench was present. The circuit breakers tripping removed power to both the kitchen refrigerator as well as the freezer in the utility room. Also, the air compressor was damaged so there was no AC while we were gone - and it was 95-100 degrees each day. The meat and other food thawed quickly and started rotting. The resulting liquid drained out of the refrigerator and freezer onto the floor and it sat there for days, getting under the tile on the floor.

Both the refrigerator and freezer had to be replaced, because the melted liquid got into the insulation and we could not eliminate the stench from the appliances. The floor in both the kitchen and utility room (where the refrigerator and freezer were) had to be replaced as well. A couple TVs, and some of my stereo equipment were damaged, as well as the HVAC system. Luckily, insurance covered most of these items.

As far as lessons learned, I suggest:

- Always provide a key to a trusted neighbor/friend who can check your house periodically if you are gone more than a couple days. The neighbor noticed our A/C compressor did not turn on at all while we were gone, but thought that we had simply turned it completely off. If she had had a key, she would have checked.

- Check every appliance or electrical device you have that was plugged in during the event. There was no apparent pattern to what was affected by the lightening, the damaged items were in different parts of the house.

I wonder what would have happened if someone was taking a shower at the time ??

Had a near hit near our cabin in Northern Michigan about 5 years ago.
- Smoked the generator (off grid)
- Fused most of the breakers in the box
- Fried all of the wiring inside
- Blew all the lighting fixtures and bulbs
- Destroyed the coax we had to an antenna on the hill behind the cabin (likely source)
- Blew a section out of the kitchen counter as it jumped from the stove (no idea why) to the kitchen pump (hand pump for water) to make ground.

I can only imagine the light show in the cabin when that happened and it's a miracle it didn't burn down. It's a good thing we weren't up there when it happened.

Had to re-wire the entire cabin and replace every fixture and the breaker box. The coax now has a box that allows us to disconnect the cable when we leave.

That EMP and residual energy from a close hit will fry a lot of modern tech. Hopefully insurance will cover it.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
Had a near hit near our cabin in Northern Michigan about 5 years ago.
- Smoked the generator (off grid)
- Fused most of the breakers in the box
- Fried all of the wiring inside
- Blew all the lighting fixtures and bulbs
- Destroyed the coax we had to an antenna on the hill behind the cabin (likely source)
- Blew a section out of the kitchen counter as it jumped from the stove (no idea why) to the kitchen pump (hand pump for water) to make ground.

I can only imagine the light show in the cabin when that happened and it's a miracle it didn't burn down. It's a good thing we weren't up there when it happened.

Had to re-wire the entire cabin and replace every fixture and the breaker box. The coax now has a box that allows us to disconnect the cable when we leave.

That EMP and residual energy from a close hit will fry a lot of modern tech. Hopefully insurance will cover it.

Was all of that covered by insurance?