Lightning Strike: A Close Call

A tornado watch went into effect in Georgia where we were staying. A few hours later, the tornado watch had been downgraded to a severe thunderstorm warning, with 70 mph wind gusts and pingpong-ball-size hail predicted to hit our area in 15 to 30 minutes.

Bob rushed around to close all four trailer slideouts while I stayed in communication from Las Vegas, where I had been sent on a business trip. With the slides closed, Bob moved inside the home of our hosts, Greg and Sharon, thankful he didn’t have to stay in the trailer for the onslaught. 

As Bob and I texted, lightning literally hit the property with a loud BOOM! at just past 11 p.m. Peering out the windows to see if anything had caught fire, Bob didn’t notice any brightness in the dark sky, other than more lightning. 

Lights Out

The sonic boom from the thunder clap had caused Gulliver’s alarm to sound, waking Greg and Sharon. Bob didn’t hear it in the basement, and by the time he ascended the stairs, the alarm had grown silent. Instead, the three heard squealing. 

Further investigation led them to Greg’s uninterruptible power supply (UPS), which protects his TV. It must have taken a surge. Greg reset his UPS and was pleased to discover his TV hadn’t been harmed.

The darkness of the night and the nastiness of the weather prevented the threesome from going outside to check on any damage around the house. They did, however, notice that the internet was out. A look at the house circuit panel revealed four or five of the breakers had been tripped. Greg flipped them back on, restoring power. 

The outlet powering our trailer had been protected from a ground fault interrupt (GFI) by another outlet in the garage. But the GFI outlet had been fried, leaving Tagalong dark and without our normal Starlink satellite internet. Our fallback cellular internet that runs off our batteries still worked. 

Bob and Greg replaced the faulty GFI outlet with an extra one Greg had on hand. That fix gave Tagalong shore power and satellite internet again. We both breathed a sigh of relief that the trailer shore power didn’t sustain damage. 

With another storm forecast to hit the area at 6 a.m., Bob decided to grab his pillow from the trailer and sleep in Greg and Sharon’s basement that night. 

Morning Dawns

The light of day revealed why the thunder had sounded so loud. Lightning had struck two trees about 30 feet from the house. Upon closer assessment, Bob, Greg, and Sharon realized the lightning bolt had run down the outside of both trees.

It must have followed the tree roots underground and boiled some water too, because they found a crack on a deck post and a buckled slat on the deck floor. A potted fern had been sitting on a ceramic plate atop the affected post. The plate had shattered, the pot lay on the ground, and the plant rested outside the pot. In addition to all that, a drain pipe had split and blown apart.

The threesome surmised the lightning traveled from the corner of the house up through the electrical ground wire into the circuit breaker box, causing the electrical problems. 

Greg and Sharon didn’t have internet service for a few days. We were glad to be able to share our Starlink internet with them. They continued to find other electrical issues — multiple fried GFIs, Wi-Fi routers, Bose sound system, and the main cable feed from the street to the house — demonstrating how powerful a bolt of lightning can be. I thank God for keeping the three of them safe.

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