so the other night at around 2:45 AM our house was struck by lightning. We were all right, just kind of stunned by the deafening boom of the thunder. Anyways I'm sitting in my bed hands over ears when my dad walks in and asks if I'm alright (we assumed at the time the lightning hit a braker box near my room). I'm shuddering, still stunned, but managed to say yes. I look at my clock by my bed: nothing; it got fried. I walked back downstairs with him and he tells me the power downstairs went out. We start flipping switches in the garage braker box, nothing works.
Then as if luck hates us, the alarm system starts going off; obviously due to lack of power. This blasted thing starts going off, beep beep, beep beep. So me and my family decide to move in to my room back upstairs. We stayed there the rest of the night.
Little had we known what happened when the lightning struck, but we sure found out the next day.
The next day me and my dad go outside to the braker switch and flip back the brakers that were flipped. All but 4 were flipped OFF, due to a power surge.
While assessing damage, we find out that the router, ISP modem, dad's computer, Ooma phone system, and our new printer were all fried. But they all had one thing in common; they were all unplugged. Turns out the lightning knocked out our cable wires and sent electricity through the cable/phone jack. Frying the ISP Modem, then the router, then the ooma, then the computer, and then the printer.
Then we notice the downstairs A/C stopped working. The display on the thermostat was off. My dad's checking the attic and notices one of our A/C systems were fried. We called an A/C man and had him come out. It was when the A/C guy was working when we noticed the next damage; our attic hot water heater had burn marks on it, and a nasty hole around a draining faucet. ..so now we need a new hot water heater? what else?
While on his way to his workbench in the garage, he notices one thing about the sprinkler system controller... the door and cpu panel had been blown off, and sitting on the ground, badly burnt. There had been a small fire, while we were sleeping.
My dad decides to check the roof for signs of a strike. He grabs a ladder and gets onto the 1 story garage part, then walks up that to the 2 story roof part. He finds a cap for a hot water heater vent, 10 feet away from where it should be. He then walks up to the vent/pipe thing, it had been damaged badly. The lightning had blown the cap off the vent.
It was then when we started to piece together the puzzle. The lightning struck the vent, blown the cap off, and entered the hot water heater. It then blew it's way through the faucet, and onto the attic floor. Then it arched across the floor in different directions, landing on the A/C unit and probably some wiring. It then worked it's way to the sprinkler unit, exiting by blowing the door and cpu panel right off.
Devices Affected:- Printer; dead, going to buy new one.
- Ooma phone system; dead, getting a new one.
- Router and ISP Modem; replaced for free by time warner cable. New download speeds: 80 mb/s (yay)
- My bedroom clock; dead, got a new one.
Thankfully my computer was not affected however I will not be playing blockland for a few days while we recover the house. I'll be uploading pictures later today.
Pictures:The sprinkler system with the door blown off.
The CPU panel. Found laying on the ground.
The faucet of the hot water heater, where the lightning probably exited.
The attic overview. The lightning bounced to the A/C on the left.
