Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Lightning Strikes Close to Home

Yesterday, I was talking with someone and I mentioned that lightning can strike miles from the apparent center of a storm. Little did I know that this would be the prelude to a "coincidence."

At about 4:30 AM I was half awake when I saw a flicker of light through my closed eye lids and hear a dull explosion at the same time. Immediately after that, the computer UPS went crazy.

I realized that the power was out. Because of the boom, I assumed that the problem was very close by, so we called the Electric Company (Excel) to report it.

I went back to sleep after turning of all computers and UPSs except the one running the co-op wifi. Then I went back to sleep.

This morning I woke up as I heard the sounds of the electricity coming back on. I quickly jumped into my cloths and drove around until I found the Excel repair man.

He told me that a lightning arrestor had blown (actually shorted) and this had taken the local grid with it. So he had to climb up and over Winiger Ridge to get to the fuse in the valley by Forsythe Creek.

When I met him I told him right away that that fixed it.

It's been too long for me to remember since the last direct strike in the neighborhood, but we got one within hours of me mentioning it, and it was also not part of a major storm that consisted of lots of thunder and lightning.

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