My house got struck by lightning twice last night.

[Raven]

Bad, bad storm. One of the worst I've experienced up here. I'm on a hill in a clearing so the house is a sitting duck. Last fall I decided to have a number of lightning rods installed as well as a master circuit breaker. Was glad I did. The first strike knocked out the electricity for a few seconds. The second bolt came through the screen door in the mud room and went right down the basement stairs where it flashed and disappeared.

[skygazer]

1. Wow, rowdy stuff!

Good thing you got those rods up. Must have been quite exciting!

[HEyHEY]

2. Could someone smarter than me insert and Edgar Allan Poe joke here

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. "Hey, Edgar, I can't find the Mask of Amontellado"

"Not Mask, you idiot, 'Cask'. Bring me the CASK of Amontellado, you heartless idiot."

[tk2kewl]

3. MILs house got hit too.

AC, fridge, tv all fried :(

[Roon]

4. My parents live on a tall hill

and when they bought their house it was already outfitted with lightening rods. I guess the former owner either learned his lesson or had the foresight to know what could happen.

[rainbow4321]

5. Lightening came down our chimney a few years back

Down the chimney, struck a plastic plant I had on the hearth, lit it on FIRE--we ended up with electrical, smoke, and fire damage throughout the house. Amazing how much fire/smoke damage a burning plastic plant can do in a small amount of time. Ended up having to live in a hotel for 2 weeks because of all the damage. Total damage amount came to $12,000..insurance covered all but the $500 deductable.
AC unit had to be replaced; dishwasher and fridge both needed new parts. Had to take 2 VCR's in for repairs, lost 3 phones from whatever came thru the phone lines when the house was hit.
At the time we had dial up..modem got fried from the zapped phone lines--I had turned off the computer as the storm came thru but didn't think to unplug the modem from the phone jack.
Air vents had to be cleaned out (soot throughout them).
Looking back, I'm grateful it "just" came down the chimney...had it hit the roof or another part of the house I wouldn't have been able to contain the fire and the house would have burned to the ground.

Scariest part was that the lightening hit a few feet from where my kids always sat in the living room. Total miracle that they picked that moment to be in another room watching TV.

[DemReadingDU]

9. Similar story, and it was LOUD

A couple months ago, lightening struck near our house at 4:30 in the morning. I literally jumped out of bed! We could never figure out exactly where it hit, but it took out the cable to TV & Internet & modem, wireless router, microwave, TVs, VCR/DVD player, and the circuit board on our furnace. We were so lucky that it didn't start a fire, it could have been so much worse.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. No way!!!! I am never ever visiting your house on a cloudy day!

[havocmom]

8. Glad you are OK after all that.

Don't even consider golfing with Lee Trevino.

Are the critters calmed down yet?

[Raven]

10. The critters got under a table right when the storm began...I

think they can hear those things coming. So they were smart and laid low for most of the night. :-)