June 29th my home nearly destroyed, I love the weather but not this.

[Stardust]

Steve,
Sorry to hear of your storm troubles...I had several of you in my thoughts and prayers when I heard about the storm from my friend down there. The most important things are all safe and sound. The rest is an inconvenience that you'll all talk about for years. God Bless, star

 

[RICKJJ59W]

Maybe you should stop forecasting the weather to the degree that you do Steve. Some one up there might be getting pissed cuz you are so good.[8D]

All joking aside glad you are all ok.

 

[logueb]

Steve, I'm glad that you and your wife are OK. I'm truly sorry for the loss that the storm caused. As a Fire Chief, I respond to a lot of storm related incidents. Last year lightning made a direct hit on an old house and the guy from across the street said it almost appeared to have exploded with flames. Last week a lightning stike hit a hay re-bailing barn and destroyed the barn, re-bailing equipment, a semi trailer and John Deere tractor. I'm glad that you have insurance, but I know that is never really enough to cover all the damage. We were called out yesterday afternoon to a house fire that destroyed everything. Luckily I was able to locate the grandmother's pocketbook with all her medicine cards. Fighting fire in triple digits weather is tough, especially at my age. Hope you get everything back in place soon. Buster

 

[Steve/sewell]

Thanks Dale,Star,Rick and Bruce,it is amazing how you keep finding things that were damaged and you didn't realize it yet,like my electric razor which I occasionally use,my bedroom alarm clock,light bulbs that have blown out this past week,Milwaukee 18 volt battery charger and the batteries in the charger 4 of them ( needed a drill this weekend ),I pod docking station,my 220 volt air compressor,just about everything that was plugged in that day.Re-submitting additional damaged items to my adjuster so he can send them to my home owners insurance company. I did change all of my breakers to dedicated GFIs this weekend and installed a Siemens QSA2020SPD Whole House Surge Protection breaker into my panel which protects the entire house. This is a real neat product I wish I had known about it beforehand.I would recommend it to everyone here at the forum

 

[AntiqueMeds]

People usually think ahead to protect AC power.
What got me during lightning hits was the phone lines since I use ADSL.
That basically took out everything on the wired network.

 

[Steve/sewell]

Matt I had these installed Br1500g surge protectors at every location I lost a TV and a PC. I should have used this company who I have used in commercial applications from Florida Ditek Corporation. http://www.ditekcorp.com/product-details.asp?ProdKey=82 They send out a tech to verify the installation is correct. It costs only 150 dollars for this certification but if anything is damaged from any kind of electrical event they will replace it free of charge.This will protect every kind of wire that enters your house.

 

[RED Matthews]

HI STEVE; Wow that sounds like a tough series of problems and bad bills to straighten every thing up. I trust the glass pieces were left OK. That is a big worry to us collectors.
Well; we are in NY now and I am still lamed up in my lower legs. I think I am getting better each day, RED Matthews

 

[AntiqueMeds]

sad thing is with a direct lighting hit no home protection devices made are going to save you.
But most hits are indirect.
We have a metal roof so we get some faraday protection but it induces a high impulse current in all the wires below the roof.
Sort of like having EMP from an H-bomb go off over your house.

 

[bostaurus]

ORIGINAL: AntiqueMeds

sad thing is with a direct lighting hit no home protection devices made are going to save you.
But most hits are indirect.
We have a metal roof so we get some faraday protection but it induces a high impulse current in all the wires below the roof.
Sort of like having EMP from an H-bomb go off over your house.

Bummer..we have a metal roof too. We are surrounded by lots of very tall trees...Maybe they will be more attractive to the lightening than the house..I hope.

 

[AntiqueMeds]

I have found that as long as the ground is normally damp the trees do a good job protecting the house.
When there is a draught and the ground is really dry things get crazy and the trees no longer help us as much.