Electrifying!

legion · 07-20-2006, 12:01 PM

Last night the wife and I are in our living room (which is in the half-basement) watching TV during a thunderstorm.

Suddenly, we hear a loud pulsing, electric buzzing noise from the northeast corner of the house. The sound on the TV goes out. I was on my laptop on Pelican of all places. My system tray tells me that I have lost my connection to the internet...

We figure lightning struck somewhere near the house.

I run outside to check that nothing is on fire. I figure anything else can be fixed after the storm passes. I'm met by my neighbor (who lives directly north of me) who is heading between our houses. He was in his kitchen (which faces south) and the lightning appeared to him to have hit at the southeast corner of his house. We figure the lightning hit one of the six trees (four mine, two his) in that area (he has a 100' sycamore and I have a 75' ash in that area). We can't see any damage to the trees or our houses. We each head back into our houses (the brutal electrical storm was still going on).

I turn off the TV and such and turn it back on. Everything works fine now.

I turn off my cable modem and wireless router. After the modem boots back up the power light is flashing (it is normally constantly on) and the "cable" light is off.

At this point, I'm trying to figure out if the cable modem is fried or if it is something with the cable company. As far as I can tell, my neighbor and I are the only two people in the area whose broadband is not working...

Dantilla · 07-20-2006, 02:00 PM

I always unplug the TV and computer during a thunderstorm.

A strike can send huge spikes through the entire house's electrical system. Just turning them off isn't good enough.

masraum · 07-21-2006, 05:01 AM

weird, at least it was nothing serious.

singpilot · 07-21-2006, 05:11 AM

Am in a high-rise in midtown Manhattan. Another big line of bumpers just crossed thru the Joisey woods, and is now rearranging taxicabs in Manhattan. Lightning, thunder and heavy rain.

IROC · IROC's Garage

We had something similar happen a couple of years ago. Lightning struck really close to our house. Took out the cable modem (and our computer). Everything else in the house was fine.

The cable guy that replaced the modem said this is *very* common.

Mike

Z-man · Z-man's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by singpilot
Am in a high-rise in midtown Manhattan. Another big line of bumpers just crossed thru the Joisey woods, and is now rearranging taxicabs in Manhattan. Lightning, thunder and heavy rain.

Just drove through those storms. Not too bad, except for the drivers that insist on driving 20 mph below the speed limit and do not yield to those who wish to travel at a more decent speed...

-Z

Disclaimer: no slow-poke drivers were harmed in the making of this post, though several were warned.

legion · 07-21-2006, 05:30 AM

I got a new cable modem from Insight. A new one costs $40 from them. (I paid $5 for the first one as a promotional offer.) The cheapest one at Best Buy is $70. I'm just going to get a hold of a cable surge protector. Everything in my house is surge-protected to the hilt, so the only thing that could have cause this was a surge in the cable line itself....unless cable modems are sensitive to the static electricity or whatever. (It was about 15 feet from the lightning strike.)

legion · 07-21-2006, 07:51 AM

Cable system is grounded...one of the first things I did when I moved into the house.