Well, here I was yesterday, sitting on the couch working on my GFG just before lunch during a thunder storm, when an almighty blast and huge flash just outside our living room window!! The electricity blew- I jumped out of my skin-sewing box on my lap went flying-DH yelled "a tree's on fire" and ran down the stairs to get the hose to put it out. Luckily, it hit a coconut palm which was lush and green, so it was contained (it was only a few feet from the house). The bolt of lightening hit the tree, hit the sidewalk next to the house and took an huge chunk out of it, bolts chewed paths in the grass from the tree base to the sidewalk, and fried the telephone lines in to the house-the main box on the other side of the house blew off and burned the wires. Then we discovered it also ruptured a hot water pipe, so a downstairs room was flooding. The repairmen came pretty quick, eventually got the water pipe fixed (after 3 hours of jack-hammering concrete to get to it!!), the electric guys were there until way after dark last night, trying to get us some power so we at least had some lights and fans, and were back early this morning. At lunch today, they still didn't have it sorted. We have no phones (olr internet) and the phone guys say there are many places they have to sort out before they get to us!! I have never been so scared-and living here for 19 years, we have had pleanty of lightening and thunder storms, just NEVER had a bolt hit so close!!! I shook for hours after!!

Glad everyone is alright. House can be fixed up back to new.

Wow! How scary! We have 3 lightening rods out our backdoor and we still got hit one year! Is scary! Only hit our modem thankgoodness but that flash was freaky! Good think for lightening rods!

We are thankful that all of you are safe :)

I love to sit outside during thunder and lightning storms particularly at night. we have had a few close calls the phone line went once but I had already unplugged anything that could get damaged.
but you had a really close call i am glad no one was hurt except your house at least that can be fixed

praise the Lord your all ok.... so very scary. Back in Missouri when grandma was growing up a lightening bolt actually got into the house and went on out. Yours must have been some kind of hit it did so much damage. (((hugs))))

Glad you are O.K. Could have been so much worse. :-)

Wow, very scary. We were at the breakfast table one morning and it was still dark outside. We happen to look out the front window and watch a lightening bolt come down and split our tree right down the middle. I still don't understand how it didn't catch on fire. I am sure the rain helped with that. The tree is split from top to ground BUT we left it alone and it survived. Everyone kept telling us to cut it down but we wanted to give it a chance to heal. And it did. That was 2 years ago and it has fully recovered other than the split down it. Crazy huh?

Just thought I would share my scary story. Because I had to take the kids out for the bus 20 minutes after that :) I was very scared to go outside.

Super glad you are all ok and hopefully your homeowners insurance will reimburse you for all of the damage. :)

Glad your ok. Hope you can settle down now.

Back in 1996 a sudden storm popped up. We had a 3 story house & DH & I had gone down to the basement bedroom to wake up DH along with our basset hound Princess. He had just woke up when the lightening hit the tv on the main floor & somehow it traveled across the floor & hit the ceiling fan (in the basement bedroom), struck my knee & hit DH. The room was pure white & we were on our hands & knees crawling out of that room screaming & crying along with Princess. Poor Princess was never the same. She could smell the storms coming & would shake something fierce. We both feel lucky to have survived that!

Wow that's scary. I would expect something like that out here but not Ca.I guess the weather everywhere is crazy. Glad you all are safe.

OMG Glad you're OK! We had lightening hit a tree one year and come into the house. Fried the well pump and turned the toaster on.

Scary!

Oh my. What a scary thing to go through. Lighting is very dangerous. I'm glad nothing worse happened. You are all very lucky. And I hope everything gets back to normal very soon. Take care.

Wow!!! What a scare!! So glad that only "minor" things were damaged and not something like a house fire.

Very scary!

How scarry!!! I am glad that everyone is ok and that no one got hurt!!!!
Hopefully you will get everything fixed and up and running soon!

(((HUGS))) I am so happy to hear that you and DH are ok (((HUGS)))

Glad your all ok !!!

We get power surges galore during lighting storms- and it sucks!!!! To date we lost our oven, microwave oven, foodsaver sucky bag thingy, treadmill, water heater, water softener, two tv's , two room monitors, three clock radios, two modems, toaster oven and That's all in two years time!! We now have expensive computer surge protectors on all the big stuff. It worked for our big screen tv's and computers so we are using them for everything else..

The lightening went straight down the trunk of the palm tree and fanned out thru the grass to the sidewalk, where it hit a metal stud or bolt which was close to the phone wires, taking out the phone system and frying the fax and phones. It also broke the water pipe and fried the electrics! What a mess-we still don't have phones, and the electricians have been there everyday-all day-since, trying to sort everything out. At least the water pipe got fixed! We would have had everything un-plugged, but this was a single out-of-the-blue strike-and we didn't have any rain to put out the fire in the tree-but it was a really green coconut palm, so it burned itself out. The tree, however, is dying, all the palm leaves are dropping off, and since it is burnt all the way down the trunk, I doubt that it will survive.

Thanks for all your good wishes!! I never want to go thru that again! I have been thru so many lightening and thunder stormes living here all these years, but nothing ever like that!!

Lightning is a fearsome thing... glad you are all safe and sound. The rest is an inconvenience and an unneeded expense, but at least you and your family are all safe!

One time when I was small, there was a huge lightning storm in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles where we lived. Lightning hit the transformer on the power pole outside our house, and it traveled down the wire into the house, took out the power and fried a clock in my parent's bedroom and several electrical outlets and some lamps. It was a BIG BANG that woke us all up. I'll never forget it, and that was probably 50 years ago or more.

Wow!!! I think I might have had a heart attack with that kind of a scare!!!!! I hope the damage to your home is soon fixed.

Yea! Just got the internet and phones back on-line! I think the electricical has finally been fixed-just in time for another storm! We have had some really heavy rains last night and today, but thankfully, no lightening and thunder with this one! Looks like my sister's home insurance will be footing the bill for this! I know the adjuster, though, and he is a real @#$%!#%!!!

Had that happen a few weeks ago...It hit a tree next to our garage...It killed the tree,took out our cable and internet and 2 tv's...The sure protecter saved my machines...Anything connected to the cable and ethernet cable died...It even knocked out things in my kitchen window.....Had I been in the kitchen, it probably would have gotten me...Lightening is so dangerous....
Thank goodness none of you were hurt either...