Mauna Kea VIS closed for the time being

[TomK]

Just for info in case anyone has plans to visit the MK VIS in the next few days.

Due to some quite severe damage caused by a lightning strike during the recent storms, the VIS is currently closed as it has no power or phone service. I don't know when it will open again (the damage was significant). When it does open, I'll post an update.

[TomK]

PS. I've sent an email to MKSS asking if the parking lot is still open for those wanting to visit the summit and need a place to stop in order to acclimate (which is always recommended). I'll post a response when I know the answer.

[Kenney]

Thanks for keeping us informed Tom.
It must have been quite a lightning storm.

[AKpilot]

I was off island but in Paauilo Mauka, I was told there was "crazy thunder" and and "epic lightning.

AKpilot

We're all here, because we're not all there!

[TomK]

Apparently, it was one bolt of lightning that split into three branches that did all the damage. It took out the VIS step-down transformer, lots of electrical and electronic systems plus the phone network while also setting off all the fire alarms at Hale Pohaku.

Anyway, power was restored late this afternoon, and the VIS should be open again on Friday.

[DTisme]

Whoa nelly. Hadn't heard this. I had a neighbor in Calif. whose entire household of electrical appliances were shot after a lightning strike (computer, microwave, toaster, oven, range, TV, stereo, cordless phone). All of it, kaplooey, just like that. The rest of the neighborhood was fine. Do bldgs still have lightning rods?

[Tink]

Your ground rod on the electrical system is the closest thing you will find to a lightning rod. The only problem with lightning is that it has an incredible unknown amperage that your ground rod is supposed to diminish in an event as such.
Cell phone towers have a continuous grounding loop with a wire the diameter of your little finger attached to ground rods spaced out every 6 feet for what they feel is adequate protection, but I have not seen what a cell tower looks like after being hit to see if their thoughts were close.

Community begins with Aloha

[TomK]

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!