Glad they are OK, But any time there is a bad storm I turn off TV/computers etc. Don't shower during it, etc. That is what the weather people recommend.

Wow, I've never known anyone to have the lightning strike their home like that. I'm glad they're both alright.

Shirley

I was in my car and it got so bad, I had to turn on my emergency blinkers, until I could pull to the side of the road.

And to think, no rain was in the forecast.

Their daughter who lives less than 5 miles from them got little to no rain.

Very thankful that they are both okay. We shut down computers and master strip during bad storms. Glad their insurance will cover the damages.

Yep, I do take precautions.

Nothing would have helped their plumbing, though.

Sounds like a terrible, terrible storm. Thankful your friends are okay. That's the most important thing. All the rest, a mighty inconvenience. Lightening is a very scary thing. I have great respect for it and heed all the precautions.

Wow! Close call! Lightning once struck the power pole behind DS's house and fried everything electrical in the house. Insurance covered it.

Did their home have a lightning rod? Did they live in a modular or trailer type home? Wow, the water pipes burst too. I guess it makes sense, but I wonder how they could have prevented that, and I especially wonder if they had a lightning rod or the house's metal water pipes going under the soil grounded them.

How frightening. I'm glad they weren't hurt.

Several years ago I was in a meeting at work and a co-worker received several text messages from her husband, she stood up in the middle of the meeting and exclaimed, "I've got to go, my house is on fire!" Her husband had been home, and left to pick up their daughter at pre-school, when he returned shortly thereafter their house was on fire from a lightning strike, and was completely destroyed.

At my house, over the last decade, two different large trees were struck by lightning. One of them was about 25 feet from the corner of the house. Although there didn't seems to be any damage to the house or anything in it, both trees ended up dying.

I had lightning strike directly in front of me, as I was driving on the interstate. That was a few years back and I won't forget it.

Scared the daylights out of me, and every hair on my body stood out.

And I was so shaken, I had to stop on the side of the road.

WHen I got over the being scared, I cried and cried and cried. Now I was really shook up!

This post was edited by glenda_al on Tue, Sep 16, 14 at 19:13

Wow, glad your friends are okay Glenda.

One of my worst fears is my house getting hit by lightening but I have trees taller than my house and a house next door that is taller than mine so I always hope the lightening would hit the trees first which it has done frequently. Until recently Windsor was the lightening capital of Canada, now a nearby rural town has that distinction.

Once I was on my cordless phone talking to a friend before a storm and a because of a close lightening strike I received an electric shock and could not get the phone out of my hand no matter how hard I tried to throw it. My friend on the other end could hear me screaming. I don't ever use my phone when there is a storm threat anymore

Imagine being your friends-the loud crack of lightning, then water everywhere. Glad they are OK. I had no idea pipes could burst. And I thought cordless phones were safe. Wow. Central FL is the lightning capital of the US :-( I always heard=stay away from windows,. Wonder if you could get hurt? Cars once were thought to be safe, but I'm not sure about that one either,

Glenda had to pull over just once from rain...it was in san diego of all places on the freeway going to work! thanks be it didn't last long and actually got to work on time...

and that was way back when I was young and foolish, lol...

When my wife was in grad school, her advisor was driving along the highway, and lightning struck the hood of his car. It blasted a hole through the hood, killed the engine in an instant, but her advisor suffered no ill effects other than being scared witless.

I wasn't sure if lightening rods really worked but when I had the house re-roofed four years ago they asked if I wanted to keep the lightening rods up so I told them I may as well as they (three of them) have been there for at least 50years and so far the house hasn't been hit. Plus I am up on a hill in the open. You don't see a lot of them except on older houses. Glenda, glad your friends were not hurt.

A friend of mine was lucky to be at home when it happened.
Lightning hit the roof and set it on fire. If she hadn't have been there
to call the fire department it would have burnt down completely.
The FD confined the blaze to just the roof and attic.

Pooh Bear

That's scary, Glenda, glad they're ok.

Cherryfizz, unfortunately tall trees and other buildings are not going to save you. I lived in a house almost completely surrounded by tall trees and we had an inground water irrigation system for the lawn. A bolt of lightning hit one of the sprinklers and followed the line into the house.

Good grief, if I was in my 80s or 90s just the sound of thunder would be enough to stop my heart. I hate it!

My sister, who lives in Washington state, took a lightning strike about a year and a half ago and is still having trouble with numbness and muscle pain. Her shoe blew out where the electricity exited her body and he had some other minor exit points as well. She's lucky to be alive!

Jodi-

Stay off the phone, tho they say cell phones are safe, stay out of the bathroom, not just the shower, away from any water source. And stay away from where any wires are attached to the house. When I was a kid an elderly neighbor lady ha a wire clothes line attached to a fence post, wrapped around a tree, then attached to the house outside the bathroom. It was stint house and her bedroom was right by the bathroom. When lightning srtuck the fence post it followed the wire clothes line to the house. She was in the hallway right outside the bathroom when it hit. She was thrown backwards and was in bed black and blue for awhile.

Glad your friends are safe.

And then there was Roy Sullivan, Shenandoah National Park Ranger, who was struck by lightening 7 times, and is in the Guinness Book of Records.

Roy and his family were friends of my family and our two children. My DH was a high school teacher, and also a seasonal park ranger. We heard about Roy's lightening strikes first hand, when we visited back and forth, and also at ranger picnics, etc. He was a fine gentleman. He raised bees, and our daughter loved honey. She would bake cakes for him and he would bring her honey. That all seems like so long ago now.

You can find him on a number of Google sites. Some say he died of a self-inflicted gunshot. I will never believe that. As often happens, there is more to the story.

Sue