What a lightning strike can do to your home....

Mrs. Robinson

Mrs. Robinson

Well-known Member
Location
Nampa,Idaho
We had some crazy weather here on Sunday afternoon. Well,by "here",I mean in our county. We actually did not get a drop of rain at our house,while a mile away got torrential rain and hail. We did hear one thunder clap-woohoo lol! But a house across the lake got hit by lightning. It blew out all the windows and tore off the roof. This morning the San Francisco news station was showing pics of the inside of the house and what a mess! Everything was upside down! Ironically,this house was one of my daughter`s foreclosure inspections several years ago so she knows the house well. I had one house that I inspected on that road but not that one. There are only a few houses on the street. Thankfully,no one was hurt on Sunday when this happened.
 

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Good grief, that is horrendous damage to one room and the roof...what is that house made from, it looks very flimsy.. thank goodness no-one was injured
 

Mrs. Robinson said:
Here`s a video of the inside. They say it did $15,000 in damage but I bet it`s going to be more than that....http://wn.ktvu.com/story/29095936/lightning-strike-blast-clearlake-home
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I can sympathize with those people. We got hit back in about 1975, when we lived in Kansas City. I had an outdoor TV antenna attached to the fireplace chimney, and that appeared to attract the lightning bolt. It was about 3AM, and it sounded like a cannon went off in the living room. The dog was going nuts, and the kids were screaming, and rain was pouring in through a huge hole in the roof/ceiling. We tossed on some clothes and got out. The neighbor across the street quickly called the fire department, but by the time they arrived, the fire was out..from all the rain. They put a big tarp over the hole, and that's about all they could do.

It was an absolute mess. The insurance man came over the next morning, and got a crew started right away. It had not only torn up the roof, and did extensive water damage, but most of the wiring in the house was melted. They put us up in a rental property nearby, and 6 weeks later....and over $50,000(which the insurance covered...minus a $500 deductible), we were able to move back in.

I hope that was our "One Time" of having to deal with such a disaster.
 
Plenty of brick built homes in the U.K. have been destroyed by lightning, doesn't matter what a house is built from, lightning doesn't distinguish.
 
Bee said:
Plenty of brick built homes in the U.K. have been destroyed by lightning, doesn't matter what a house is built from, lightning doesn't distinguish.
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No one said they weren't...but in this country lightening usually causes a fire to start often by striking a chimney or an open window which will burn the house down, rather than hitting flimsy woodwork ..
 
Don M. said:
I can sympathize with those people. We got hit back in about 1975, when we lived in Kansas City. I had an outdoor TV antenna attached to the fireplace chimney, and that appeared to attract the lightning bolt. It was about 3AM, and it sounded like a cannon went off in the living room. The dog was going nuts, and the kids were screaming, and rain was pouring in through a huge hole in the roof/ceiling. We tossed on some clothes and got out. The neighbor across the street quickly called the fire department, but by the time they arrived, the fire was out..from all the rain. They put a big tarp over the hole, and that's about all they could do.

It was an absolute mess. The insurance man came over the next morning, and got a crew started right away. It had not only torn up the roof, and did extensive water damage, but most of the wiring in the house was melted. They put us up in a rental property nearby, and 6 weeks later....and over $50,000(which the insurance covered...minus a $500 deductible), we were able to move back in.

I hope that was our "One Time" of having to deal with such a disaster.
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Yikes,Don! So you know first hand what lightning can do! I had no idea.
 
The lightning strike on that airplane really freaks me out. :eek:

Some years ago we had a strike on a utility pole near my back yard. The transformer exploded like a dynamite blast and burst into flames. The fire spread to some nearby trees and was rapidly growing. Fortunately the fire dept. was able to extinguish the flames before any damage to houses occurred.
 
All this talk of lightning, I expect to be knocked off line any moment. No smart remarks or wishful hoping please. LOL. Our boxes here in the lightning capital get hit daily during this time of year. I've already had to restart my pc five times this week due to being knocked offline by strikes. I probably shouldn't be on the pc right now, but, oh well.

Lightening is quite frightening here in FL, people get hit almost as often as homes, well maybe an exaggeration, but, they do get hit more often than other places I've lived in the states.
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
Yikes,Don! So you know first hand what lightning can do! I had no idea.
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Yes, we saw, first hand. just how bad Mother Nature can be. Now, we pay Real Close attention to the weather reports, and take the appropriate precautions...but lightning can be a real "wild card"...with minimal defense against it. At least here, we have gobs of tall trees around, so hopefully, they will act as future "lightning rods". A few years ago, we had a strike just a couple of hundred yards from the house, and the next day I found the tree it hit. What had been a huge 75' oak, was reduced to shrapnel and charred sawdust. Lightning and Tornadoes (when we lived in Wichita) are a couple of things we have had enough experience with.
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
I think I`ll settle for earthquakes.....
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There probably isn't any place on the planet that doesn't have some weather or environmental issues. About all a person can do is recognize the risks in their particular area, and have an action plan in place should they be impacted.

BTW, I notice you are located in Northern California. Is this prolonged drought causing any issues in your area? Southern and Central CA, and the desert SW regions seem to be bearing the brunt of this drought. Lake Mead and Lake Powell are both at or very near record lows...which could soon cause major problems all over the SW.
 
We are in a high danger wildfire area. That`s one of my biggest fears with this drought-not enough water to fight a fire. I guess our "neighborhood" had a fire in the early 80s that pretty much wiped out the neighborhood. So with our neighborhood pond dried up and all of us on minimal wells (some neighbors wells have dried up already) it`s more than a little scary....
 
Yeah, there is nothing like a bunch of dry pine trees and underbrush to create a huge forest fire. With fire season fast approaching, and the California water situation, I imagine the news for this, and coming years will be filled with reports of major fires in CA. About all a homeowner can do, in such a situation, is to make sure that there are minimal trees and brush anywhere near the house. All it takes is a careless campfire, or a lightning strike, etc., to destroy thousands of acres of forestland, and dozens/hundreds of homes. Hopefully, you will escape this potential.
 
The damage on that house is horrendous. I just noticed that the lightening topped of a pine tree, next to my house, last night. Thankfully it fell away from my house. Although I heard the crack it must have been stronger than it actually was.
 

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