Gerry Reid's "Caught-My-Eye" Item
Ka-BOOM!
A Very En-"Lightning" Experience!
Our home was struck by lightning on Saturday, July 27, 1996. Disaster? Almost. Tragedy? Nowhere near! Pain-in-the-butt? Absolutely, but not literally, Thank God!
I was out of town at the MPI World Education Congress in Nashville. I came back to my hotel room about 12:15 a.m. after attending the Grand Old Opry. Message light was on. Message said "Your son, Jonathan, called. Call him - Not an emergency." Yeah, sure! It was simply Jonathan's diplomatic way of breaking the scary news.
I called Jonathan.
In a bubbly voice he said, "Well, Dad, you're going to get that new entertainment center you've been wanting!" (Cute don't you think?)
What the heck is he talking about?
"Mom is here and she's OK."
Huh? There seems to be a missing part here - Or is this a stupid dream?
"Your house was struck by lightning."
"Oh, Doo-doo" (I actually said a synonym for "Doo-doo.")
"Blew up the fireplace, the walls, your stereo, TV and started a fire."
(Expletive deleted. Starts with "F" and does not rhyme with "car.")
"Fire department said it should have burned to the ground, thank God Mom was over here."
"Amen! Thank you, Lord!" ("Sorry for the cussing, Lord," he thought, prayerfully.)
"Mom was here for dinner. We watched a movie and when she got home the garage door opener wouldn't work. She went to front door, went in and smelled smoke. ("Doo-Doo") Power was out but she walked in ("WHAT?") and a few feet later was walking on broken glass. She got out, went to a friends, called me so I went over. What a mess! ("Oh gosh, fooey" or something like that.) I looked in the attic - lots of smoke, but no fire. We thought it would be a good idea to call the fire department just to check it out."
"Duh, about time!"
Fire department didn't take it as lightly and sent two trucks and an rescue unit "just to check it out." They were flabbergasted at the damage. They couldn't believe that there was no fire, just smoke. "It should have been a total loss due to fire! We've never anything like it." (Same comment from insurance agent, adjuster, inspectors and contractors. Seems to me the reason they have never seen such damage is that it usually burns down in the fire!)
Caught my eye? You bet! It caught the attention of our entire family, not to mention the fire department, our church members and friends, State Farm Insurance, and my business!
I have always found weather, storms, lightning, electricity and the power of nature to be "fascinating," as Spock would say.
For those of you interested, here is what one bolt can do in probably no more that a few milliseconds (amazing things in italics, miraculous things in bold italics and hyper-links to photographs):
It contacted the house on the corner of the metal chimney cap. The entrance hole was no less than one-eight inch in diameter with a neatly circular welded look to the edge of the circle. No damage to the roof.
The metal chimney was NOT the conduit, but rather, the bolt apparently followed the air intake pipe, a flimsy, flexible 4-inch tube made of thin aluminum, down to the base of the fireplace. The fireplace stack is inside a triangular area which makes up the front of the fireplace, a bedroom wall, bathroom and walk-in clothes closet.
Having nowhere to go, the bolt and its surrounding heat and energy blew up the bottom of the fireplace, moving the brick facade and inch wallboard about 3-4 inches away from the studs, blew open the glass doors (without breaking them), popped the nails out of the wallboard on all three sides of the triangle and sent pictures flying off the associated walls.
One 30 by 40 inch picture flew several feet, crashed and broke on the floor and stood itself upright facing the wall from which it came leaning on a love coffee table. This picture flew over the mantle that had been separated from the wall studs by 3-4 inches. Several collectable porcelain figurines, glass candle holders, and an antique plate were on the mantle. Only the plate fell and broke. Everything else was undisturbed! ) A picture in the bedroom was blown ten feet, sailing over a dresser and disturbing only the tallest item on the far end of the dresser.
Meanwhile, the bolt, apparently not yet finding a satisfactory ground, escaped through the brick hearth and went under the carpet for an inch or so until it burned through to find an extension cord lying on the floor. The bolt burned three spots on a fire extinguisher, but did not set it off and then found the cable TV out let!
In an instant, two TVs, two VCRs and a receiver attached to the cable in differently parts of the house were toasted - but did not catch fire. Not yet satisfied, the bolt found a brass candle snuffer (which may have originally been on the mantle) and followed it (with an obvious gap in the damage to the wall while following this piece of metal) until it arrived at the electrical outlet where the extension cord was plugged in.
Most of the route from the fireplace was behind a love seat that suffered considerable flash burn damage but did not ignite! Had the love seat caught on fire, or if any other object started to burn, the fire department said the house would have been a total loss. The love seat was on an interior wall with a clothes closet on the other side which is in the core of the house. The access to the attic is in that closet, also! Nobody was a home, the blinds were drawn, the neighbors probably watching TV or sleeping and the circuit with the smoke detectors on it had it's breaker tripped along with several others. How lucky can we get?
Even more lucky - I have three telephone lines into my house, all wired through one eight-wire cable. The telephones on our home line were fried. My business line, connected to one telephone had no damage. A third line is connected to my business computer, my home computer and my fax machine. That line was severed, but nothing on the line was damaged! While a new computer would have been nice (I have 100% replacement insurance) the thought of rebuilding my business from tape backups makes my stomach turn.
The greatest miracle in this situation was that Pam was not home. The love seat that was hit was her favorite sitting place. The fire department said that with this severe a bolt it would have knocked a person unconscious and easily triggered a heart attack. No one would have known.
So far, the insurance company has been easy to work with and the major pain in the butt comes from having to get the house inspected (three nights out of the house), dealing with contractors as we get repair bids, getting electronic repair estimates, and generally wondering how long all of this will take. But, I tell you what, it sure is easier than trying to figuring out what we owned and how to rebuild my business if we were totaled. I cannot give enough thanks for God's grace and presence through all of this.
Here's a bonus personal development "tip of the week" -
1) Make sure your insurance coverage is adequate. Had we not taken an extra option of 100% replacement value, we'd be faced with trying to replace all of our electronics and other personal items at CURRENT VALUE! (What is the value if a 9 year old 27 inch TV, or an 11 year old ceiling fan?)
2) Do a complete home inventory. I cannot comprehend what it must be like sifting through ashes, trying to remember what you actually had. Next time you are away from home for a few days, try to do that from memory, that should convince you of how difficult it would be.
3) Find a safe way or place to store unreplaceable items. Can you imagine how empty fife would be without all your pictures or diaries or the treasures handed down to you from parents and grandparents? If nothing else, you owe it to future generations to preserve the records of the past entrusted to you.