Lightning strike!

[combustionmark]

Sunday night I got an alarm on my phone, There was a lightning strike near by. I didn't require the alert, I heard it. We had a power outage at work, and I was busy getting the plant back running. Then my phone started ringing, there was a tree laying across my garage and house. Well there was nothing I could do about it now, I changed my voice mail to say that I knew about the tree, and got back to work.

Monday morning I got a look at the mess. The 100+ year old oak tree in my backyard had been struck, and the top of the tree was now on my house and garage, most of the trunk was laying across the garage. Everything looked intact, so I dug out the chainsaw and begun to remove everything off the house. No damage, lucky there. I was wore out, so I decided to get some sleep.

This morning I got back to the saw, to removed the trunk from the top of my garage, this thing is almost as big as my VW. After a few cuts, I was able to roll it off. 2 dents in the roof, and no broken rafters. Lucky again.

I now have several big piles of brush to haul off, and some big logs to chop up. More rain, so I get another break.

Any one interested in some fire wood? You pickup.

Some times I hate living in such an old home. This time, You have to love that old construction. They really knew how to build something to last.

I called my insurance, They are going to send an inspector out to check everything.

[tbone321]

Sorry to hear about the damage.  You are correct, the old growth timber used on your house is much stronger than the crap that they use now.  If they repair it, make sure that they use the same materials that the house origionally used which would be boards and not that OSB crap. 

[rrowan]

WOW that is scary awesome. Glad to hear the house is ok and I assume everyone is safe.

Shame about the old oak tree (no yellow ribbon?)

Scary that it happen
Awesome the strength and construction of your home.

Rick R.

[caretaker]

Glad your your household and house are all OK. I can say that since I got a generator I have not had a power outage at my house for the last 8 years or so. Now hail damage from a storm early this summer, that's a different story.   

[combustionmark]

I forgot to mention, The garage has a metal roof, looks original. The rafters are more like posts, about 5x9, with 2x10 plank sheeting. The house has asphalt shingling over 2x10 planking and 5x9 rafters. And talk about tough, 2 years ago I reroofed the house. The nail gun was more of a nail starter. Every time I shot a roofing nail in, I had to follow it with a couple of blows from the hammer.

The house mostly had branches on it, but that tree was a monster, and the branches were big. Glad I have a 24 inch bar on my chainsaw.

[smeighan]

in my woodbadge boy scout training this last weekend at Camp Tahoosa (10,000').
the last day, walking back to the central building, lightning struck a tree about 75' from where i was standing. that was scary.

glad all are safe

sean

[jnealand]

Wow, Mark glad to hear all is mostly well.

[keitha43]

I got you beat. My house got hit this morning at around 4:30am. It hit the vent pipe to my furnace in my attic. So far it has fried-
1. my Cox digital telephone system
2. my security system
3. my audio receiver
4. 1- tv luckily not my big screen
5. a portable phone base unit
6. cable modem
7. wireless network switch
8. my doorbell (darn thing just kept ringing)
9. the circuit board in my furnace (until they fix that they won't know if there is more damage to the furnace or air conditioner).
10. various outlets and multiple items in the fusebox.

[combustionmark]

Sorry to hear about that. I got lucky there as well. No electronics fried. Satellite TV required a reboot and a couple of TV programs were interrupted, not recorded. I will have to wait for the rerun.

At my previous home, I had 4 acres of oak trees, I have seen them get struck by lightning many times. It always amazed me how lightning works. Some times just a big boom, other times the tree blows apart. I have even been knocked off my feet from a close strike. But just before the strike, a strange feeling, and smell of ozone, even sometimes hair on my arms stands up. Time to take cover.

Just glad no one was hurt.

[keitha43]

This was my 2nd close call. Many years ago in my old house I had an old 10' satellite dish in my back yard that got hit. Not only did it fry the satellite system but I had a boat parked nearby and it shorted the toggle on/off switch causing the livewell motors to keep running. Just like my doorbell this time. Good thing I've got fans because no AC tonight.

[sirloinofbeef001]

I think this is more common than we think. My house was hit last year where my underground dog fence exits the house. It actually blew the wires up. Of course it was fried and the garage doors and my lynksys and my water heater circuit board and several other things. The funny thing is, I was just out there minutes before it happened.

[keitha43]

I was actually in the "reading room" (not library ) when it happened. Found out yesterday it also blew out my satellite receivers modem and off-air tuner module, all my house phones, my AC condenser fan, and my "smarthours" thermostat. And that I have a 1000 deductable

[sirloinofbeef001]

Wow thats a lot. if that were me, Ida rather been hit by the lightning. At least no one was hurt. You can't replace all that for a thousand bucks

[tng5737]

The year before I had my house built, lightning struck a house on the next street over - even blew concrete out of the foundation wall and of course it ruined all the electronics in the adjacent house as well as its own.  As I was having my house built, lightning struck again the next block over and burned that house to the ground.  The first thing I did when I moved in was have a professional company come out and install lightning rods on the house and surge protector across the mains.  Now I can sleep at night even in the worst storms.
Sorry to hear about the damage, but at least you and your family are safe!

[combustionmark]

The insurance adjuster stopped by today, There is some wiring in the breaker panel that has begun to burn, the breakers have fused, and the power line feeding my house will have to be replaced. Good news there was no structural damage, and they are going to reimburse me for the loss of the tree.

I have replaced the breakers, I upgraded the panel to 200 amp 10 years ago. The burned wiring is the main feed coming in from the meter and the utility company is going to look into replacing that. My house only has a 40 amp service, and I am hoping I will finally be able to get this upgraded. They have resisted upgrading my service this for the past 10 years, with the excuse that the system was unable to support any additional load.

The utility grid is the only thing in town older than my house. When it was constructed, they only planed on lighting service, not what you want today.