[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

There can be hidden damage. Contact insurance for guidance.
Our area had a lightning strike a few years ago that turned an 8" dia. tree into kindling. A house 200 ft away had all sorts of strange electrical issues including a battery operated wall clock that started running backwards.

Surprisingly enough, no guidance from them as a source of replacing anything. State farm which holds my home owners insurance told me that since lighting didnt strike my house, there's nothing they would cover.

[fiedlerh]

That's the beauty of conduit. You can always pull new wire!
From your original description it sounded like it hit your house. I guess it depends on how they define "hit your house". Can they prove it didn't? At least damage appears to be minimal. Could have been worse, a house in Crystal Lake was set on fire.

A friend's house (the guy who order my GA new) got hit years ago. The cable junction box was found across the street. His young son got zapped (but uninjured) when the lightning jumped from an outlet to his bed frame. A TV quit but turned itself on and started working a week later. Strange stuff.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by fiedlerh

From your original description it sounded like it hit your house. I guess it depends on how they define "hit your house". Can they prove it didn't?

That's the problem with lightning. Just being near a strike is enough to induce quite a bit of current on some lines and enough voltage in some cases to destroy electronics and wiring. It's why being under trees is a bad thing, the lightning strike doesn't have to actually hit you to kill you.

Chances are insurance companies will only step up if it's proven that lightning did strike AND do visible physical damage to some place on the house, not just electrical damage as it doesn't require a direct strike to do that.