From the latest SSA news:

"While I know this is going to sound like an excuse right up there with
"The dog ate my homework assignment..." last week the Carswell house in
Midlothian TX was struck by lightning (really). It blew a 10 foot hole
in the roof while Dean and his wife Tammie were trying to sleep through
a storm, traveled down two floors, and exited to ground along the path
of his internet access. The strike essentially fried everything
electrical in the house, including wiring and all computers, but
fortunately caused no fire. It remains to be seen if any of the Board
minutes Dean had on his hard drive are recoverable, but at least he had
printed out an interim version before things blew."

When I'm not flying gliders, I work with lightning stuff (typically
hardening high-tech facilities and forensic issues). We have all noted
a large increase in these sort of problems in recent years, and
coincidentally there was an article in today's Wall Street Journal
lamenting the same thing. Houses are increasingly full of expensive
electronic toys that get eaten by lightning, resulting in a sharp
increase in insurance claims in recent years.

Oh yes, and US houses, being mostly constructed out of wooden sticks
and paper, are often burned to the ground by lightning, so I guess Dean
was relatively lucky.

Mike (the Strike)

P.S. Gliders and lightning are best kept apart!