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Lightning struck my house- destroyed our roof, phone lines, cable, PC's and my Z560's (with pics)

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psteng19

Diamond Member
We were hit pretty hard by the storm last friday in the northeast.
Fortunately, my whole family went out for dinner at the time, so no one was hurt.

UNfortunately, a lightning bolt made a direct hit on my chimney, shattered it to pieces, bricks went flying all over the roof and the front yard, shattered the skylights, etc...

Pics <-- took quite a few pics for the insurance company, so dial up users beware.

I was out of communication the whole weekend, because it took out the phone lines, ALL our phones (having a couple of cell phones saved us), the cable modem, cable router, all the NICs attached to the router (except this laptop which I luckily left disconnected - renting the cable modem from comcast for now, until I get a new one... ugh).

Very lucky that more serious damage was not done, and the insurance company is covering most things.

It did however, take out my Logitech Z560's.
I'm thinking the fuse on the amp blew, and I've read a couple of posts where some of you have changed it yourself I believe.
Or do you think it's a better idea to just RMA it?

Thanks for the help.
 
Dude, if you are sending this list to your insurance company, go wild getting the stuff replaced. You don't need to look for deals 😉. We had some nasty thunder and lightning last night near us too in Wisconsin. Look at the bright side, you'll get lots of newer and better stuff 🙂
 
Wow. That's pretty sick. That storm was wicked too, a house about 2 miles from here got struck by lightning on that same night. But it burnt down, luckily the people escaped unharmed.
 
Yeh that was a sick storm. Once I heard that thing comin I ran upstairs and unplugged my computer 😀 . It freakin poured too I think we got like 3 inches of rain in like 30 minutes from that.
 
What's important is that everyone in your family is ok, you guys were lucky.

This is why I like living in Portland, Oregon we rarely get serious thunderstorms but when we do I unplug all the critical electronic/computer equipment directly from the wall. In the event that a nasty thunderstorm hits and I'm not home I have an APC Back-UPS Pro 650 to protect my computer and my wife's. The laser printer and networking equipment are plugged into an APC surge protector with phone line protection. You can never be too careful.
 
destroyed telecom stuff
Yes, we were very lucky that no one was home at the time.
We would've been scared outta our pants when the chimney came down.

The insurance company told us that at least 80 homes filed claims the past weekend, so we weren't the only ones hit.
This was my first claim with home insurance and I wasn't too familiar with the procedure.
If I had known earlier, I would have told them some MSRP's, as opposed to ATHD prices 😉

I'll think I'll upgrade to a wireless router now, as well as the newer model Panasonic 2.4 Ghz phones...
Anyone know of any deals? 😛
 
Originally posted by: XZeroII
Dude, if you are sending this list to your insurance company, go wild getting the stuff replaced. You don't need to look for deals 😉.
Click to expand...
Then get busted for insurance fraud and go to a federal pound me in the ass prison.

SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN TO ME!

 
Ughhh...
Another comp bites the dust... the second one to go (out of 4).
I have a feeling the 3rd one will go soon too now.

It was working fine for a couple of days, and then now all of a sudden, no go.
Same deal with the first comp that died... worked for a day, and then no worky.
Is this typical?

I'm suspecting the faulty part to be the motherboard.
I could just pretend I didn't know what the problem was, and say the whole system is dead, worth about $800, but that would be dishonest 😛
 
My crazy ass was actually out driving during the thunderstorm. I had thought it subsided, and called a friend in Queens who said it wasn't raining there either, so I went to get him. 5 min. later, lightning galore, and buckets of rain come pouring down. Why I didn't just turn back and go home I'm still not sure.
 
If you have a good policy with a reputable insurance company, they will pay replacement value.
No insurance fraud should be needed.
Originally posted by: Goldfish
Originally posted by: XZeroII
Dude, if you are sending this list to your insurance company, go wild getting the stuff replaced. You don't need to look for deals 😉.
Click to expand...
Then get busted for insurance fraud and go to a federal pound me in the ass prison.

SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN TO ME!
Click to expand...

 
This happened to my cousin a while back in NC. I don't remember if the damage was very bad for him, I think it was sorta minimal. No one was hurt, either.
 
Sucks dude 🙁 Same thing happened to me about 6 months ago. Took out all my pc's, my home theater stuff, and my garage door opener. I ended up with better stuff though, as they paid me what I had paid. This of course, was enough to get a free upgrade. 🙂
 
Damn... I've never EVER unplugged my computers (or anyone elses' in my house) during a storm.. and I live in Bradenton, FL - 30 minutes from the lightning capital of the world. And everything's been fine....

And we have a TON of computers/tvs/vcrs/pvrs/dvds/phones... between the four of us, we have the average electronics of 15 people.


damn.. maybe I should invest in some protection for it
 
OUCH that bites glad to hear everyone is ok
lightning isnt too bad around here but ocasionally we have to worry about tornados they are lots of fun

cav
 
Ouch! Those lightnings sure have alot of power! It could have been alot worse though. Luckily your house didn't burn down!

A lighting struck close to my girlfriends and her familys home just few days ago. Took out the modem in their comp.
 
Yeah it seems in the spring and fall we have a storm every other day in Wisconsin.
I hate it when the people with computers I've built don't unplug their modems.
Anyways that really sucks, but thank god nobody was home.
 
doesnt anyone use surge protectors anymore(esp on computers)?😕 when we had a power surge from a storm last year we lost the garage door motor, a cheap tv (hence no surge protector), and a modem because the phone line wasnt plugged into a surge protector... after that we bought a phone line surge protector and cheap 1 port surge protectors for anything of value that didnt already have them...
 
My parents house was struck but lightning when I was kid and it struck the chimney too.Must have a grudge against them or something.We had some rough weather a while back here too.We had an F-4 tornado tear a town up and it came within a mile of my house.I heard it pass by.Scary.
 
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