Our expensive weekend.....

Pappy

Pappy

Living the Dream
Location
Moved back to NY from Florida. 🤓 2025
Saturday night and Sunday morning, we had a bad electrical storm. I got up at about six Sunday morning and was sitting on the couch reading my Ipad. When BOOM, a huge bolt felt like it hit our camper. It scared the bejesus out of me and the wife.

After things calmed down somewhat, I went outside to check for damage, of which I found none. However a crowd was gathering four campers down, so I strolled down to see what was going on. A tree had been hit next to a camper and split tree down the middle.

At that time, no one was aware of any damage to their camps. As the day wore on the stories started rolling in and the news was not good. The lightning had followed the underground lines in and caused many appliance burn outs. At that time, I thought we were okay.

I decided to turn on TV and....nothing. I went to call our friends to see if their electricity was out and phone phone was dead. Now, I'm getting a little nervous and decided to see if the cable box was okay. Nope, it was burnt out. Tried the TV, dead. I then went over to follow the phone line in.....burnt in half. Went to turn on AC, it's making a weird noise.

Long story short. Had to replace TV. Picked up new cable box, will need new phone as this one is toast. Need a two line model as we are hooked to office. My wife is asst. mgr, in the campground. AC unit needs to be looked at as it may have to be replaced.

Insurance will cover some but the AC will be prorated as our camper is 1999 park model. Am thankful it was not worst. Some camps were really messed up.
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SeaBreeze said:
Wow Pappy, sorry to hear that. So you think a 'surge protector' would have helped?
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Probably the TV, yes. Phone, I doubt it and AC is on top of camper wired directly to fuse box. We are very lucky it did not hit a direct strike on anyone. Things can be replaced. The pic. Is the tree it hit. Tree has to come down as it is split about halfway down and roots are all burnt. God, the power of lightning.
 

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That was part of the system that hit Boston with a tornado?
Lightning is very powerful for sure!

Had a lightning strike in our back yard in the summer of 2004. It hit a 70' tall pine tree, ricocheted, and came through the house, cracked a brick wall, and came down across the kitchen floor where I was standing with a hand mixer at the counter. .. I got a jolt, and a broken blood vessel in my arm..
It was all a very bizarre thing. Had appliances, TV and other electronics zapped and ruined. Phones hit, but didn't go out. ?
But had to get two large old pine trees taken down after that. That was the sad part.

The smell of burnt pine tree & needles was so strong that my next-door neighbors thought their house was on fire.


 
Good points, Raphy1. Being a campground, a lot of folks aren't here during the week like we are. It should prove interesting when the weekenders start showing up and see the damage to their campers. I hope it is very little but like us, we keep finding little things we missed before.

Bonnie....lightning is extremely powerful. When I was a little guy, my mom would hide in the cellar stairs during a storm. She was scared to death of lightning. I had to go with her so to this day, I'm probably more alarmed than most people.
 
Pappy said:
Bonnie....lightning is extremely powerful. When I was a little guy, my mom would hide in the cellar stairs during a storm. She was scared to death of lightning. I had to go with her so to this day, I'm probably more alarmed than most people.
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I don't run and hide anymore, but I do reflect! :)

And yes, Ralphy ... Good motto: STAY GROUNDED ..(applies to many things..:p)
 
Sorry to hear this, Pappy, where I live our electricity comes from a rural coop and in the past they would reimburse for appliances that were knocked out. I would think that the utilities should have protection against this....anyway, might be worth checking into.
 
Jackie...not sure if if we can come back on utility co. Or not. Maybe worth checking into. My homeowners will cover some, as we have a $250.00 deductible on camper. That was the cost of new TV we got. The air conditioner is another thing. We need to get a replacement cost and turn it into insurance company. Then they prorate cost and we get the remainder.
 
Good advice indeed Ralphy! Below are some facts about lightning. :)



LIGHTNING

The bolts that pierce the air are really channels of pulsing electric energy two inches across. They may be as short as 200 feet or as long as 20 miles. They zip through the air at 90,000 miles per second, nearly half the speed of light. At that clip, it’s impossible to see that the bolt is actually traveling from the ground up to the clouds.

In that glimmering instant, the electricity heats the surrounding air up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, five times the temperature of the surface of the sun.

How does a thundercloud get so charged up with electricity? The process is complex and poorly understood. One theory is that ice slivers and hail swirling within the cloud generate electrical charges, sending positive charges to the top of the thundercloud, negative to the bottom. This activity induces an increasingly strong positive charge directly below on the earth’s surface that the negative cloud base finds irresistible. Eventually the cloud base accumulates a whopping potential of 100 million volts, enough to allow an electrical discharge.

At this point, the thundercloud’s stored energy spills out from the cloud in what is called a “stepped leader,” a latticework of angular streamers, too faint for the human eye to detect. When one comes wriggling to within 30 yards of the ground, the earth can take it no longer and lets loose with a mammoth “return stroke,” a tremendous eruption of radiant light that shoots back up the path the leader has broken to the cloud, filling out some side channels and wrong turns on the way, to form a blazing, many -channeled stream of light. This is what we see. The lightning’s heat causes a rapid expansion of air to create a massive shock wave - the roar, crack and rumble of thunder. That is what we hear.
 
they used to offer metal framed homes that were grounded to prevent lightning damage. I don't know if its still available

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otherwise

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I don't know of any effective way to prevent damage.
 
Our 42" HD tv went out two years ago and we were told it was either by a bolt of lightning that struck close or construction work that was going on the apt. complex office. The repair tech told us "best to turn off/unplug the tv when you have a t-storm."

We bought the tv, on sale, at Circuit City and got a Warranty with it. Unfortunately, CC had went out of business when our tv "blew a gasket", but called up the company that CC used for their tv Warranties and they accepted the Warranty and fixed the tv for no charge. So, from that time on, we shut off/unplug the big screen tv when we start hearing close thunder. Anyway, is was a circuit board had blown out on the tv and it took 3 weeks to get it replaced. Have a small 14" in our bedroom that we watched. Since we eat meals in the living room while watching tv, we switched from eating in the living room to eating in the bedroom. Sort of what people would do if they ate "take-out" in their motel room. My wife absolutely loves tv, so we were very glad that we have two TV's.
 
ClassicRockr said:
Our 42" HD tv went out two years ago and we were told it was either by a bolt of lightning that struck close or construction work that was going on the apt. complex office. The repair tech told us "best to turn off/unplug the tv when you have a t-storm."

We bought the tv, on sale, at Circuit City and got a Warranty with it. Unfortunately, CC had went out of business when our tv "blew a gasket", but called up the company that CC used for their tv Warranties and they accepted the Warranty and fixed the tv for no charge. So, from that time on, we shut off/unplug the big screen tv when we start hearing close thunder. Anyway, is was a circuit board had blown out on the tv and it took 3 weeks to get it replaced. Have a small 14" in our bedroom that we watched. Since we eat meals in the living room while watching tv, we switched from eating in the living room to eating in the bedroom. Sort of what people would do if they ate "take-out" in their motel room. My wife absolutely loves tv, so we were very glad that we have two TV's.
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saw a lot of em when I worked for Sony

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I always leave my "big" (40") flat screen TV unplugged (both power & ant cable) during the summer t-srorm season, only plugging it in when there is something on that I want to see on the bigger screen. Otherwise, I have a small flat screen that I usually watch.

A few years ago, I was putting a glass jug of fruit punch back in my refrigerator after getting a drink. As I was about to shut the door, suddenly a bright light flashed in my face & there was an incredibly loud explosion. My initial reaction within the first split second, was to think that the jug of punch exploded. But of course, that makes no sense whatsoever, does it?

It quickly occurred to me that there had been a lightning strike in my backyard. Knocked out my back porch light & the electronic timer switch, the light in the refrigerator, a cordless phone & caused a leak in the hot water supply line from my water heater below the slab.

Thank God it didn't strike the roof & start a fire!!!
 
Thank Buddha you and the Missus are okay, Pap.

I've never experienced a lightning strike, but from the stories here and elsewhere I'm pretty glad I haven't. (knocks on wood)
 
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