Support NeoGAF

[MIMIC]

A few days ago, my area got a freak lightning storm (and what amazes me is that across the street where the rec-center and the baseball fields are, people were STILL out there lazily getting off the field).

Then all of a sudden, BAM! The power surge behind my computer pops, all of the power in the neighborhood goes out, car alarms sound, house security alarms are tripped and the sound of the thunder nearly knocks me over. :lol

The lightning strike fried my Ethernet port, destroyed my DSL modem, and disabled my phone lines (SBC recently fixed them).

If only lightning wasn't so destructive. =p

 

[Lemurnator]

umm... I'd suggest going outside real quick just to make sure there aren't any tripods. Your situation sounds vaguely familiar.

 

[Jeffahn]

It is punishment from above.

...

 

[TheQueen'sOwn]

Happened to us too (Ottawa). Power went out 9 times... lightning lasted a good 3 hours.

 

[Triumph]

You're not from Florida or Ohio, by any chance? If so, it was just God letting you know that your state sucks it. Sucks it long and hard, actually.

 

[MIMIC]

You're not from Florida or Ohio, by any chance? If so, it was just God letting you know that your state sucks it. Sucks it long and hard, actually.

:lol An Ohioan, I'm afraid.

But my county was like 70% for Kerry.

 

[Mejilan]

My house in NJ got struck by lightning once, when I was a kid. It happened at around 2am, and we (all 5 of us), were all asleep in our respective bedrooms. We all woke up from the blast and congregated in the first floor of our home (4 of us had our bedrooms on the 2nd floor, 1 of us in the basement.) We wound up losing 1 TV, 1 fridge, and 1 AC.

So cool.

 

[Escape Goat]

lightning has destroyed my modem twice now. my building keeps getting hit by lightning.

 

[GaimeGuy]

lightning has destroyed my modem twice now. my building keeps getting hit by lightning.

damn, dude. :lol

 

[Escape Goat]

damn, dude. :lol

yeah, i unplug my computer during storms now.

 

[Nikashi]

I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything, but do surge protectors not protect against lightning?

 

[Mejilan]

I've never been in the habit of using surge protectors for my TVs and shit, honestly.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Haha - I got caught biking home in the first storm on Wednesday. Five feet in front of me the street was wet with rain - behind me, dry. So I just soldiered up and pedaled on. Then the lightning started, so I took refuge under a library awning. When the storm slowed, I moved on towards home. There were small rivers in the curb lane of the street I was riding in. Water splashing everywhere and soaking me.

Then I thought about my old paranoia of dying before I hit 30. Which is a few weeks of, and an overwhelming fear of the lightning overcame me. That and I remembered the time I was visiting the family as a child and lightning in the middle of a rain storm struck a tree stump about a yard away from me as I ran from my grandmother, or aunts car, to the house. So when the lightning started in again I took shelter under the awning of KFC. I tried calling for an extraction, but my god damned cell phone wasn't finding a signal; and I thought about that episode of Mythbusters with the Cell Phones and the lightning strike myth.

Again it slowed and again I got back on the bike to trudge through the torrents of water filling the street. Some sections were totally flooded.

Then the lightning started again. So four miles from home I found an outcropping near a police impound yard with heavy tree cover. I managed to get a signal on the phone, and called in the extraction.

All the while listening to the thunderclaps and shifting my position hoping today wasn't my day.

The next day I was back out in the rain and lightning again, but this time it was just a mile to the bus stop. Which was sufficient time to get soaked to the bone. :X