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



## Steve/sewell (Jul 5, 2012)

On June 29th in the evening at around 1130 PM a straight line wind produced in thunderstorms called a derecho crossed the country in 24 hrs as most of you know it caused quite a bit of damage to trees and power lines in its path particularly in the Washington DC area and Southern New Jersey. Unfortunately for me my house was not spared.First came the wind damage,110 mph for about a minute and a half damaged quite a few trees around my property.Next the lightning was unreal,I was on the phone with my father who lives about 3 miles away and I was telling him I was looking at the radar and that the worst of the storm that had just hit our area was moving East and the storm should be letting up.Right at that precise moment a bolt of lightning hit the large 300 year old oak tree between my neighbors house and my own, it bounced into each of our homes causing extensive roof damage and plenty of destruction of my electrical equipment in my home.
  We had no power for 36 hours so it was tough to tell what exactly was damaged. When the power was restored and I could test everything electrical the following was determined to be literally blown up. 1- 50 inch led TV,1-36 inch led TV,1-40 inch plasma TV / computer monitor,1- MFC printer,1-fax machine,1-PC home,1-PC work,1-refrigerato and 1-freezer.All of these totaled a little over 6000.00 dollars,my roof estimate is to replace the entire roof and the burnt rafters came in at 7500.00.Ironically my weather equipment mounted on the roof sustained no damage and is working fine. As I am typing this a nasty storm is bearing down on us again.We are all OK and that is what really matters,and I am slowly restoring things in my home.The partially tarped roof is holding for now and work will begin this weekend on the new roof. The Home owners insurance estimate is for 10,500 a little low but much appreciated. No bottles were damaged in the attic got to go,it is now raining heavily I have to make sure water is staying out out of the house.


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## tigue710 (Jul 5, 2012)

damn!  god be with you...


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## bostaurus (Jul 5, 2012)

Glad you and the family are safe!


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## epackage (Jul 5, 2012)

Sorry to hear it Steve, good luck with the insurance company, just happy you and yours are safe....Jim


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## AntiqueMeds (Jul 5, 2012)

I have had direct lightning hits on my house twice.
 Not a good thing.


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## ktbi (Jul 5, 2012)

Nature is powerful. I'm truly glad no one was hurt Steve....Take care...Ron


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## LC (Jul 5, 2012)

I can relate to the lightning strikes . Lightning struck my house once , hit one end and out the other . Pretty much took everything electrical . Had an old electric service at the time . It blew the door open on the fuse box and blew out the center of every fuse leaving only the brass threaded parts of the fuses . Mother Nature can sure strut her stuff at times . Glad you all are all right .


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## Dansalata (Jul 5, 2012)

WOW!!!THAT IS AWFUL MAN...BUT THANK GOD YOU ARE OK!!!


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## Wheelah23 (Jul 5, 2012)

That was some crazy storm... Was watching it through the window cuz I'm down in Manahawkin. The torrential rain and lightning dancing on the bay was quite a sight.


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## surfaceone (Jul 5, 2012)

Hey Steve, 

 Glad you and the family are all OK. 

 Sorry about the extensive damage, and the multiple electronic casualties. I'd be shaking a fist at the sky, for sure.

 Was this a serial derecho? Seems awfully reminiscent of the 1980 event.




From.


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## BillinMo (Jul 5, 2012)

Wow.  That's some of the most destructive lightning I've heard about without burning the house down.  Glad to hear you and your family are safe, Steve.


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## glass man (Jul 5, 2012)

WOW BROTHER so very sad to read this!I pray no further damage has been done..WE will be praying for yall!I love you!!JAMIE


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## Poison_Us (Jul 5, 2012)

Oh no.   Sorry to hear that.  GLad your alright.  Our thoughts are with you.


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## JOETHECROW (Jul 5, 2012)

Glad you lived to tell the tale Steve.


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## beendiggin (Jul 6, 2012)

Sorry about the damage to your home Steve.   Glad you and your family are ok.  That's what's really important.


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## splante (Jul 6, 2012)

I second that glad you and your family are ok. Been through a few earthquakes and wild fires in my Calif days, all that counts is you are ok.


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## Steve/sewell (Jul 6, 2012)

Yeah thanks everyone but just more bad news,
 I just returned from Canada today and if it could get any worse it did!!
 I had a fire recovery specialist come out to look at the roof closer and he is recommending not only the entire sheathed roof come off but all of the trusses as well as he simply put they boiled and then burnt and will break down in a hurry if they are not replaced. This includes the ceiling joists on the second floor as well. He also told me to be on the watch for further damage to electrical appliances that hasn't happened yet but most of the time will such as refrigerators,garage door openers,sump pumps central air,just about anything electrical that was plugged in.I had an electrical engineer friend look at the one surge suppressor that survived in my house and he estimated the  following after looking at the raw data recorded on one of my surviving PCs.He estimated that for a nano second of time 10,000 to 200,000 amperes of current passed through my entire house. He is actually suggesting gutting the walls and redoing all of the electric services AC Data Phone Video ect.This is growing by the day and is quite disheartening plus my company's work has been setting an unreal pace of late.No bottles in the foreseeable future I have been consumed by this. On a more positive note I restored network capability to a large camp near my home that caters to the mentally challenged.The same storm that hit my home severely damaged the camp. They have over 55 camp counselors that come from all of Europe and the former Eastern Bloc countries that work with as many as 10 sometimes severely retarded people by themselves all day. These kids all in their late teens and early twenty's are there for three months on a strictly volunteer basis. These kids rely on the internet to email home and use Skype at the end of the day to communicate with their loved ones. They endured no Air conditioning for 5 days,no running water,the well pumps were damaged and no electrical amenities for the same period.  When I stop and think about all of the special needs people they are helping gratis I am ashamed to B I T C H about my life's lack of supposed comforts. Truthfully the best part about the whole deal as my wife and I agreed is we dont miss the TVs at ALL!! Thanks again everyone for responding it means a lot. Steve


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## epackage (Jul 6, 2012)

You have a tremendous outlook and spirit Steve, the best thing is none of you were hurt. If you're looking for estimates feel free to let me know and my buddy Paul and I will be happy to take a look and see what we can do. Good luck with everything buddy...[]


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## bostaurus (Jul 7, 2012)

I am glad you were able to get a specialist in there to look at things.  Just listened to a guy on the radio the other day, a private insurance inspector.
 His point was that most insurance inspectors do not have experience in construction.  They tend to estimate on replacing obviously damaged parts.  Construction experience would inform them that there would be unseen damage that weakens parts that seem fine or compromises the structure.  
 He recommended hiring a professional adjuster with construction experience.  They work with your insurance company and almost always gets them to raise the amount they pay.
 I always assumed the folks sent out by the insurance company were experts, but I thought the same thing about house inspectors.  They guy that did this house before we bought missed some big things...like a metal roof that was about to come off in places, Formosan termites, and floor boards that were completely hollow due to termite damage.  But like you said...small beans compared to what others put up with everyday.


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## SAbottles (Jul 8, 2012)

Wow, sorry to hear about this, Steve. It must have been a frightening ordeal. Do you not see some grim irony here? You are the guy who gives everyone else heads up about bad weather and then the weather sneaks up on you and WHAM ! Mother Nature plays some nasty jokes ! []


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## Stardust (Jul 8, 2012)

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


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## RICKJJ59W (Jul 8, 2012)

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.


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## logueb (Jul 9, 2012)

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


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## Steve/sewell (Jul 9, 2012)

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


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## AntiqueMeds (Jul 9, 2012)

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.


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## Steve/sewell (Jul 9, 2012)

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.


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## RED Matthews (Jul 9, 2012)

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


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## AntiqueMeds (Jul 9, 2012)

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.


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## bostaurus (Jul 10, 2012)

> 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.
> ...


 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.


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## AntiqueMeds (Jul 10, 2012)

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.


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## buddhanot (Jul 13, 2012)

that's really bad .. good thing my place is safe from lightning .. and also good thing none of you got hurt .. keep the boat sailing men ..[8D]


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## ajohn (Jul 13, 2012)

Steve, sorry to hear about your troubles. Just glad everyone was OK. Sure is hard to find the "silver lining" in things sometimes, but I'm guessing that just that fact that we look for it is what counts. Blessings to you and yours.


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