lightning strike nearby......

My sympathies. Several years ago, we had a lighting strike nearby. Our electronic, including computers were fried.

Even if you think an electronic device survived and appears to function correctly; it may still have unknown damage and "die" at a later date.

Surprisingly, it seemed that our appliances were not affected.

Several years ago had a similar experience. Took out the garage door opener, the microwave, and the wash machine control board. In all cases, there were runs vaporized on the circuit boards. I was able to fix the microwave and the garage door opener, but the wash machine required an expensive service call. Did not have a whole house surge suppressor at the time, do now.

Our boat was struck by lightning about 1996. It is a 28 foot sailboat and we were on our way for a long cruise, about 40 miles from home on Long Island Sound, 10 miles offshore.

A sailboat is always hit on top of the aluminum mast. On a fiberglass boat, there is some danger the lightning will keep traveling straight down the mast or guy wires, through the hull and into the water. When this happens, it blows a hole in the hull and the boat sinks. Monohull sailboats do not have positive floatation.

We were motoring along with no wind and an overcast summer sky, no rain. When it hit, it was the loudest explosion ever and a bright flash. We were deaf after this and had to shout at each other. I went below to search for leaks. It smelled like there was a fire, but there wasn't one.

Later check found the base station marine VHF radio and the Loran fried along with their mast-top antennas. Loran is a position-finding device that works on high-frequency radio signals from ground stations, a precursor to GPS. We now had no position and no way to call for help.

We changed course for Black Rock Harbor, Connecticut, and went to the nearest marine store, bought a VHF, antenna, and my first GPS ever, a marine handheld Garmin GPS 76.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/164

dobs108
We don't actually have a good emoji for this - it should have its hair standing straight up!

We learned this lesson when a fellow yachtsman's Cal 28 was struck by lightning on the sound in 2001. The strike didn't penetrate the hull but it did a fair amount of burn damage to the rigging.

Since then, we began using an old sailor's rig on our boat. We attached short pieces of #4 welding cable to the mainstay, backstay and shrouds. We then connected sash weights and hung the other end overboard which effectively grounded the rigging. These days, modern sailboats have lightning protection built in.

When I was a kid, back in the early to mid 1970's, I was at a friends house and lightening struck a tree in his yard, maybe 30 feet from the big picture window his family had a big ole stereo console under. I think we were listening to an 8-track tape at the time, the console started smoking within seconds after the lighten strike.

No new items found dead
MyBad: During my search for TV power supply I used phone because internet wasn’t up yet, and small screen
Of phone didn’t show there were 2x different supplies.... You guessed it! Wrong board ordered! It’s still on its way here, and can’t be turned around. Second (correct) supply ordered.
New switch shipped from FLA Yesterday... Delivery scheduled for Sunday ??!!??
Nothing on RMA Switch. That could take 2 weeks.
Important thing is: nothing new died !!

It's fortunate nothing else was damaged!

Our internet goes out occasionally. When it does, I set up a cellular WiFi hot spot on my smartphone and use it to get my computers back on the internet temporarily. You have to watch your data usage though.

About 10 years ago my next door neighbor had a lightening strike a tree that was about ten feet from the property line.
The tree was approximately 50 feet tall. This caused the tree to splint sending it onto my 5 ft fence and into my yard. You could actually see were the strike hit and continued down the tree for about 25 feet.

The impact was so severe it sent pieces of bark 65 feet and putting two holes in my vinyl siding shed that needed to be replaced. It also sent more pieces for about 100 ft away to a to 6ft PCV fence causing damage.

This was the part that is interesting. My neighbor called her insurance company to put a call in to have the tree removed and was told MY insurance company would need to be notified to have the tree removed because it was an act of God. She was right; when I called my insurance company they agreed and would pay removal of the tree which they did.

I don't understand their reasoning since it was not my fault.
My neighbors had several appliances burn out and needed to be replaced, her insurance company paid for that.
It seems that the lightening also went into the ground and causing the electronics damage. I did not receive any electric damage to my property.

Since that experience, I would never go outside should a lightening storm appear.
I saw the damage electricity can do when following a path of least resistance. Both our houses have an underground cable hooked up to the power circuit breaker box.

Lesson learned, in addition to potential injury to our selves, we have a small dog; she would never survive the electric shock potentially present.

muell9k-

Last year a neighbor's medium-size tree was blown down by strong winds (no lightning). Ten feet of the trunk was on the neighbor's property and forty feet of the entire tree was on my property.

The insurance company confirmed what you have found. My insurance company paid for the tree on my property and paid immediately very fairly.

Underground electrical service is much safer than overhead wires. I am a retired master electrician. Most houses are damaged by lightning when overhead wires on a pole line are hit and the lightning travels down the service cable into the interior wiring of the house. The pole is higher than the house. That is why it is hit so often.

JanJ-

It appears your mountain had a pole-line strike and the lightning traveled on the pole-line wires.

dobs108

Interesting fact, in our case it was evident hit the tree and went into the ground since I had no electrical damage unlike my neighbor had.

snippet
"Underground electrical service is much safer than overhead wires. I am a retired master electrician. Most houses are damaged by lightning when overhead wires on a pole line are hit and the lightning travels down the service cable into the interior wiring of the house. The pole is higher than the house. That is why it is hit so often."

My insurance company was (is) Liberty Mutual, been with them since 1975. They too paid the claim quite quickly.

I wonder had the tree been diseased, rather than the lighting strike, if Liberty Mutual would not have paid the claim insisting my neighbor's insurance company was responsible.

Pretty much for any reason, (except for tree work) whoever's yard it lands in, is responsible for removal and repairs.

However, in the case of your neighbor's tree that ended up mostly in his yard, the insurance companies will probably come to their own agreement on the damages.

Update on repairs: New Gigabit switch installed. Wrong TV Board, arrived and returned to sender today. Late yesterday Email from D-Link indicating they shipped the RMS gigabit switch, and I should have it Friday. Correct TV Power board is a couple states away on its way here.

I think your insurance would pay you, and then seek reimbursement from neighbor's insurance via subrogation.