Lightning

About 4 years ago a friend of mine was running around her house unplugging stuff when a thunderstorm was coming. That's standard operating procedure around here or you lose anything wired to the outside/plugged in....TV computer, telephone, microwave. The last thing she unplugged was the telephone jack going into the DSL modem. Lightning struck a telephone pedestal almost an eighth of a mile away, ran down the underground cable into her house and jumped off the telephone jack and into her body through her thumb. It blew her thumbnail off (which embedded in her forehead!) traveled down her right side, jumped between her ankles and then across the floor into the drain under her kitchen sink. The shock threw her across the room into the hallway, where she lay until she came to an hour or so later. She ended up in the hospital for a while, then in rehab for a couple of years. She's 99% recovered, but she is now terrified of thunderstorms. I can't blame her.

I was scheduled for an interview as well but had **** in my pants and declined!

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Originally Posted by hornhospital

About 4 years ago a friend of mine was running around her house unplugging stuff when a thunderstorm was coming. That's standard operating procedure around here or you lose anything wired to the outside/plugged in....TV computer, telephone, microwave. The last thing she unplugged was the telephone jack going into the DSL modem. Lightning struck a telephone pedestal almost an eighth of a mile away, ran down the underground cable into her house and jumped off the telephone jack and into her body through her thumb. It blew her thumbnail off (which embedded in her forehead!) traveled down her right side, jumped between her ankles and then across the floor into the drain under her kitchen sink. The shock threw her across the room into the hallway, where she lay until she came to an hour or so later. She ended up in the hospital for a while, then in rehab for a couple of years. She's 99% recovered, but she is now terrified of thunderstorms. I can't blame her.

That's crazy!

I've never heard of anybody doing that around here, though... But I have heard about people that had fried routers and network cards from telephone/cable lines being struck.

Update not good! Claim is settled on the home we are getting things back in order. However, the Indy shop has had my car 2 1/2 weeks...I got a call this morning with bad news. BBA Reman...the folks in MA. that were repairing the cluster have indicated that it cannot be brought back to life. So...car has to be taken to the dealer for a new cluster because the Indy shop doesn't have the needed software to reprogram the new cluster. Dealership has indicated that original miles will be recouped on the car as they are stored in the lamp module or something or other. The dealer indicated they will also go completely through the car again to remedy any electrical issues that are found.

Originally Posted by hornhospital

About 4 years ago a friend of mine was running around her house unplugging stuff when a thunderstorm was coming. That's standard operating procedure around here or you lose anything wired to the outside/plugged in....TV computer, telephone, microwave. The last thing she unplugged was the telephone jack going into the DSL modem. Lightning struck a telephone pedestal almost an eighth of a mile away, ran down the underground cable into her house and jumped off the telephone jack and into her body through her thumb. It blew her thumbnail off (which embedded in her forehead!) traveled down her right side, jumped between her ankles and then across the floor into the drain under her kitchen sink. The shock threw her across the room into the hallway, where she lay until she came to an hour or so later. She ended up in the hospital for a while, then in rehab for a couple of years. She's 99% recovered, but she is now terrified of thunderstorms. I can't blame her.

They have these cool things called surge protectors nowadays. We don't even get lightning storms here and everything electronic that I care about is on a surge protector.

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Everyone around here plugs their battery chargers into surge protectors...I guess I was just careless this one time. BTW the majority of items fried in my house were plugged into surge protectors!

Elitist?

You can't put a surge protector on a phone line...

Sure you can. I have my phone line run through the surge protector on my CyberPower UPS. They have an in and out set of phone jacks just for that.

I stand corrected.

there is a lightning storm above me for the last 3 hours..... kinda freaky.

Wait, what are these "phone lines" you speak of? I only have a cell phone.

Too bad you weren't in the car going precisely 88 mph when the lightning hit.

88 miles per hours is over the speed limit and i dont speed

Originally Posted by E36 Phantom

They have these cool things called surge protectors nowadays. We don't even get lightning storms here and everything electronic that I care about is on a surge protector.

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Funny you should mention that. The lady that I described is now known in our circle of friends as "Sally Surge protector"

Originally Posted by Eight Thirty

88 miles per hours is over the speed limit and i dont speed

But, but, but, 1.21 Gigawatts!!!!111!!!1!!!!!!

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