lightning just hit ...

Lightning strikes are never ever a fun thing. I used to live on a street where once every few years a house near us would get hit. I happened to be looking out our front window one day and saw a bolt hit our neighbor's house. I told my mom that I thought their house had been hit. The owners were out of town. A few minutes later, I saw flames in their basement. I can't recall who called the fire department, but they were there ASAP. Lots of smoke damage to the upper floor, but most of what was actually burned was in the basement. The house was salvageable with some repair. A few years after that incident, I was going to get myself some water during a storm. Put my hand on our metal sink and watched out the back window as a bolt of lightning hit just in front (outside of) the kitchen. I got shocked, as my hand was still on the sink, and we weren't sure if it was my hair we smelled burning or if something on the house had caught fire briefly. We called the fire department to come and inspect the house anyway. I never lost consciousness and was more concerned about the house. The bolt had melted and fused some wiring together near fuse box, but nothing started blazing. We were lucky.

Edited to add: Now I live with my hubby and two kids in a house surrounded by 80ft+ trees. I hate storms here. A bolt of lighting brought a branch down on our roof one year. We also had a bolt of lighting take down one of the largest trees on our property. The boom from both the bolt and the tree falling was unbelievably loud. A neighbor down the road from us was killed last spring when she went out to her shed to close the door. A tree branch came down on her. I never officially heard if it was due to lightning, but I was recording the thunder (collecting sound effects for my stock portfolio) and watching all of the flashes of light when she died, and I didn't even know it until later that day.

 

Our yard was struck about 6 months ago during a bad thunder storm. It traveled up our phone line and fried everything! and I mean everything! We had our TV's plugged into a surge protector so they were ok but my son had his xbox360 plugged into his surge protector along with his stereo and a few other things, it literally blew his modem in half...all of it fried. The phone company came out and pulled the jacks out and you should have seen how black they were. (thank god we paid for the inside wiring service plan) We were very lucky not to have our house burn down.

 

Back on May 5th of this year (Mothers Day), we had a tornado rip through our county and the thunderstorms that proceeded it were some of the worse I've seen in many years. Nine homes in our little community was struck by lightening. We had tree damage from the high winds, but that was it. The tornado tore through the Industrial Park near I-95 and litterly wiped out every business there, jumped I-95 and cut a path through the woodlands destroying homes until it reached the marsh and died out. By the grace of God, no lives were lost. When the lightening was popping, it sounded like we were being bombed. I'll never forget it!

Praying everyone in your area is safe and sound.

 

Quote:I know exactly what you are saying. The morning the storms hit here, it was just me and DD home since DH was in Savannah working. The electricity was out but I had our battery operated scanner on and on the weather band. When the Tornado warning went off and we were in the path, I grabbed my DD and the couch cushions and we headed for the back hall. You just do what you have to do.

 

Lightening is such a scarey thing. We have been hit 3 times this past summer. As a matter of fast, I have an electrician coming out this afternoon to check if our house is grounded properly.( its an older home and was built by the original owners) As a plus, while he is out here, I am getting 2 outside receptacles put in....for Christmas lights!! Woohoo!! BE SAFE out there. Lightening has a mind of its own.

 

Mom's day fell on May 11th this year....only cuz it's my birthday and I remember it falls on Mom's day often.


And trees around houses are scary too...up the hill my friend's house burned down...with their hamsters and little dog in it by smoke inhalation.

Hit a tree, roots took it underground to the electrical box, no one was home...well, husband was out in barn milking---so he didn't know....until it got bigger and a friend driving by saw it and stopped.

Mom and 3 kids were out and came home to fire trucks and everyone stopped to the side of the road....watching helplessly.

Pastor passed her some money on her front lawn and she turned around with her kids and went clothes shopping so they had something to wear the next day to school. She just couldn't stay and watch it.

Testimony is everything was so hot and melted and covered with soot...she said a couple of fire fighters fell to their knees in the aftermath when they went in through the kitchen and saw a in tact peice of paper pinned to the wall that read one of the verses from Book of Psalm's. How could a piece of parchment not burn up like the rest of the things around it? On her piano were figurines that had exploded from the heat except for the little boy holding the sheep. Her dining room where she studied and read to her children and taught them things from the Bible....looked untouched. And there under the table lay thier little bichon frise asleep.


The next few days friends and neighbors rallied and sifted through the ashes to find anything salvageable....pictures, momentos....and with pads of paper in hand we tried to write down the things that we could tell that were lost for insurance purposes.

The children's class mates came together and donated enough money for them to buy a new dog when it came time. The mom had allergies so it had to be a special kind.

People came with clothes and food. They rented the empty house next to us and we spent many a mornings with our kids playing and talking with our Bibles in hand, sipping our coffee.

Today they have rebuilt. The house is magnificent. I love their kitchen with sky lights and it opens up into their living room/dining room. Gives it a very open family closeness feel....where one can make a meal and still talk with the crowd.

But it's never an easy thing to have to live through....many things were lost but much was gained by love.

me,
g

 

That can be scary. I lost a great uncle to getting hit by lighting. He thought he was safe under a tree. This was way before I was born. He was working out in the field farming and nothing was near for him to get under but a tree. So sad even if I never knew him.

We have had rain here since yesterday and suppose to rain tomorrow too. I live in Central La and they are saying it could be rain mixed with snow/sleet! We don't get much of that here
Hope if it is snow it will here long enough for the kids to play with. Probably won't but wishful thinking!

 

I live in the desert so I think is unnecessary for me to say that we have seen our share of lightening. I have seen some incredibly fantastic storms over the desert in some really awesome colors. And I have also seen pulled overon the side of the road to watch. We drive by slowly hollering at them to get back in their cars and MOVE. duh...