05-05-2017, 05:42 PM
DTisme - I may have told this story before on PW.
Back in the winter of 2003/2004 (I think, may have been a year earlier), a very violent thunderstorm moved over Kaloli Point, sat over us for 20 minutes and then moved off. There were lightning strikes all round every five seconds or so and during that short time my house was struck three times.
All my major appliances survived somehow but hardly any of the less-expensive stuff did. My phone was taken out and the next morning I discovered I no longer actually had a phone line to the house, it had vaporized. What was left of it was in the road outside my house. My TV was saved by a signal amplifier on the antenna cable which took the full brunt of one strike. However, for several months after, the bottom third of my TV screen had a very odd greenish tinge. My radio alarm would only tell the correct time between 12 and 1 o'clock and my computer modem was completely fried, but the rest of the computer somehow survived.
A few weeks later, the tops of three palm trees in the front yard suddenly toppled over and the trees died. They all had fronds near the original phone line into the house.
I'll never forget that storm, it was so bad I was too scared to even get to my car about five yards from the front door, the lightning was everywhere and almost constant.
The next winter we had another big thunderstorm with flooding rains. The power went out and my lower lanai was flooding. I got a flashlight and with one hand on the screen door, was checking the lanai to see if the water might get into the house when there was this bright flash right in front of me as a lightning bolt struck about 10 yards away. My hand was blown off the screen door with the rest of my body following it. My hand wouldn't stop tingling for hours afterward.
I used to love thunderstorms, and in a way I still do, but they do make me a little nervous these days!
Back in the winter of 2003/2004 (I think, may have been a year earlier), a very violent thunderstorm moved over Kaloli Point, sat over us for 20 minutes and then moved off. There were lightning strikes all round every five seconds or so and during that short time my house was struck three times.
All my major appliances survived somehow but hardly any of the less-expensive stuff did. My phone was taken out and the next morning I discovered I no longer actually had a phone line to the house, it had vaporized. What was left of it was in the road outside my house. My TV was saved by a signal amplifier on the antenna cable which took the full brunt of one strike. However, for several months after, the bottom third of my TV screen had a very odd greenish tinge. My radio alarm would only tell the correct time between 12 and 1 o'clock and my computer modem was completely fried, but the rest of the computer somehow survived.
A few weeks later, the tops of three palm trees in the front yard suddenly toppled over and the trees died. They all had fronds near the original phone line into the house.
I'll never forget that storm, it was so bad I was too scared to even get to my car about five yards from the front door, the lightning was everywhere and almost constant.
The next winter we had another big thunderstorm with flooding rains. The power went out and my lower lanai was flooding. I got a flashlight and with one hand on the screen door, was checking the lanai to see if the water might get into the house when there was this bright flash right in front of me as a lightning bolt struck about 10 yards away. My hand was blown off the screen door with the rest of my body following it. My hand wouldn't stop tingling for hours afterward.
I used to love thunderstorms, and in a way I still do, but they do make me a little nervous these days!