Electrifying Truths about Lightning

21 Jul Electrifying Truths about Lightning

During a thunderstorm, most families can be found inside looking for various ways to ride out the rain, believing they’re safe within the walls of their home. While, for the most part, that’s true, there are still ways that lightning can actually get inside those walls.

1. A direct strike to your home.
2. Conducted by metal pipes or wiring that reach outside of the household.
3. Through the ground.

Once inside, lightning can now travel through the electrical, phone, plumbing, and your radio or television reception systems as well as any metal bars or wires on the inside of your house. One of the leading causes of indoor lightning injuries is phone use during a storm. If it is necessary to use your phone, be sure to keep away from doors and windows as these can provide the path for a direct strike to enter your home. In addition, you must consider the safety of your pets; doghouses are not lightening proof and if your furry friend is attached to a tree by a metal chain, they are an easy target to fall victim to a lightning strike.

Lightning also causes significant damage to electronics that cannot be kept at bay by surge protectors. It can even generate electrical surges that fry electronics, not in direct contact with the strike. To keep your electronics safe unplug all unnecessary appliances to the nearest extent possible. If you plan to be away from your home during a thunderstorm, be sure to unplug any unneeded equipment before your departure.

If it so happens that you fall victim to a thunderstorm while you’re out and about, avoid small structures. Unless they are designed to be lightning safe, they do little or nothing to provide safety from lightning strikes. A shelter that does not contain some sort of metal plumbing or wiring throughout, or some other mechanism for grounding from the roof to ground is not a safe place to be.

It is our highest hope that this article was helpful to you and if you have any questions regarding the lightning safety of your home, please feel free to give your friends at SAVA Insurance a call!