Recent lighting storm stuck my complex and traveled down my coaxial cable and into my apartment. Blew up in the middle of the night, so that was scary. Thought I’d share, not in the position to rebuild so there that I guess!
Happen to me onetime a long time ago. Lighting struck outside travel through LAN cable. The only thing that safe my PC that time because that router model I used somehow got the surge protection for lighting strike build-in.
That's horrible. I've always read incidents like this or OP's but often when we do get thunder, maybe a few times a year, the mountain ranges near the area attract the lightening or radio towers. Probably the most insane but coolest photos I've seen of post lightening damage.
Photo 4 shows no ground wire on the barrel plug which is coming from the pole to OP's house.
PSA for all: Check your Coax Drops - there should be a green cable, thick gauge, running from the Coax that goes from the aerial drop to the house - usually has a splitter or barrel connector there, for the purpose of grounding.
The ground wire should meet/run to a certified ground. Either a pipe going to earth or meeting with other home grounding cables to earth.
100% This... Doesn't stop everything, but certainly reduces chances and impact. There is a reason its required by code you are lucky you didn't have a fire or someone getting hit...
Actually, not uncommon. I do IT and had a client who had a camera get hit by lightning on the outside of the building. It took out 3 HVAC units, 2 servers, 3 switches, 5 computers, 40 total cameras, 25 phones, and 2 TVs. All through the network cable.
Lightning was a constant source of work for the bank equipment companies I worked for over 30 years. It was like free money for us. We would go triage immediately and do a proposal to replace.
I've been told since I was very young to unplug my ethernet cable during storms. I still do this. Also it happens more frequently than you probably think. I've seen it a couple of times at work over the years.
Eh, its pretty "normal" for lightning to go through signal cables like ethernet to fuck shit up. In fact its a decent % of my job to fix it afterwards lmao
But that wouldn't have helped if you only unplugged it from the wall socket. I had 3 PCs in my family home fry during a thunderstorm. Everything was unplugged, including the router except for the ethernet cables. Well, it hit somewhere in some internet cable junction box and traveled through CAT5 to our router. And then from router to all 3 computers.
Quality surge protectors come with a warranty - granted they're rife with fine print and tight reporting deadlines but they do payout.
Had to file a claim for three systems in an office that got hit. It was fairly straight forward and I'll never buy anything but that three letter brand because of it.
Just to be clear and add to what you are saying, if the router is plugged in, disconnect any cables between the router and PC, including ethernet cables. That way you can use wifi during a thunderstorm, even though the PC and anything connected to the PC should not be connected to the outlet. I have a couple thinkpads for my thunderstorm setup, one of which can atleast play Skyrim.
Last time I had to deal with lightning damage (struck the neighbor and part of the bolt discharged at a crossing two blocks down so every house down there suffered some level of damage), this is what I had to deal with:
Half of home (grounded, unprotected): Dead router (no smoke), dead GPU.
Other half of home (grounded, protected): A few devices not turning on but a deep static discharge fixed them.
Neighbor (ungrounded, unprotected): E1M1 (seriously their AP was blown to smithereens)
Neighbor LAN which I was plugged into: My switch blew open, black spot on the wall like OP, and upon investigation, apparently the shortest path to ground from my ungrounded neighbor was through the VGA plug.
Why my neighbor was ungrounded? Someone stole the copper from his ground rods. Like HOW.
I bought fallout 3 on my xbox 360 when i was like 15, first weekend i was olaying lightning turned my xbox into a box. I unplug my fridge when i hear thunder now. Never again
There is absolutely no reason to not have renter's insurance if you rent. It cost like 5 to 20 bucks. I have no idea why it's like that, I guess the landlord insurance is on the hook for most things so they pay you and go get it from them, but that is mega cheap compared to home owners insurance.
But also get a GOOD surge protector (tripplite etc) with a in/out for your ethernet cable .
Pretty much every property manager requires it, unless they're a shit landlord, to avoid the headache in case something goes wrong. Renters insurance exists for the sole purpose of protecting the renters. The only benefit to a landlord is to avoid a nagging tenant in the event of a crisis.
This is why you're supposed to ground the coaxial cable outside of the house! I used to install satellite TV when I was younger and you especially wanted to ground the line when there was a big metal dish on the roof at one end that's connected to a bunch of electronics on the other end lol
See that missing grounding/earthing that nobody hook up?
This would have taken at least the brunt force. I would look if this is required where you are and who's responsibility this is/was. Most likely building, but ymmv.
Apartment buildings usually have no grounding wire to bond to for each unit like single family homes do. In those cases the tap is supposed to be grounded to its own wire & rod. OP would need to look at the tap.
I used to install cable service. I'll admit that it's been more than a decade, but at least as recently as 2012, we were required to run our own grounding if the residence didn't have one. We had a specific coupler that we had to affix to brick or non-combustible material, which we'd then use to run the ground.
ETA: As others have pointed out, that coupler in the picture is indeed the grounding block I'm referring to.
Yes that’s a grounding block, but often apartment complexes do not have a suitable fixture to bond that block. And we are currently discouraged from bonding to pipes or affixing to the electrical disconnect housing. That’s why the tap should be grounded (which it might not have been in OP’s case). Field techs don’t get rods and such to create their own ground 🤷🏻♂️
The GROUND is literally right there. I'm pretty sure NEC indicates you are required to drop a ground rod right there. Single family residence or multi tenant.
Yeah I work with a coax insulation company since they didn’t properly maintain a ground connection it’s on them or if they can prove they installed one it on the complex, but as the length of the ground cable has to be shorter than the length of the run of coax cable to the modem and it looks like a rather short run into the unit so it also looks improperly installed.
Working on houses and looking at spectrums work it’s almost always lacking, they have terrible Quality control from what I’ve seen in my market
Edit: looking at the picture and the paint on the ground connection point I’d doubt that it was ever grounded
And how much you wanna bet said contractor no longer exists depending on how long ago that was installed. So they'll double down, refuse to take any responsibility and leave them hanging. Nobody does the right fucking thing anymore.
They'll bitch and moan and fight because cable companies are the biggest shits in the world. If they really won't cut a check, send them an intent to sue letter and their legal team will accept a reasonable settlement offer, because they know they will lose.
That is not up to code. No ground wire. Also per QA specifications this should be in an SDU or at the least have a drip loop. This picture is enough to say "nope" this was actually an act of negligence. Source = Cable industry vet since 1997.
Yep. That junction is literally referred to as a grounding block in the industry. I haven’t worked in the industry in years but I remember it needing to be located within so many feet of the grounding location.
I was an install tech 10 years ago. I had to rewire numerous houses to fix the last guys fuckups. The most common issues was not installing ground and not compressing connectors fully. One house somehow the coax had power. Shocked the fuck out of me and I spent way to long trying to narrow down where it was coming from.
This should be top comment. I’m a cable technician of 17 years. My company would have my ass if I left a house not bonded to power and this happened. Bonding is cable 101, literally 1st week of training stuff. The bond might not have saved everything but certainly would have helped it not get even close to that bad. Sorry this happened to you OP. Hopefully Spectrum pulls their heads out of the butt and makes it right.
OPs situation ain't normal! Surge protection is obligatory for every cable that gets routed for whatever distance on the outside of a building. It's 6 bucks for coax and 15 for eth. If your house has a grounding (and usually all wall outlets have a grounding phase), your house also is required to have a grounding anchor. Thereby adding a potential equalization rail is another 10 bucks. In that situation I'd even check the breaker box if there even is a RCD in there and wether the ground is provided by true earth (ankor around the house, separate cable, other diameter) or through the grid (only the 5 pin connection from the electricity provider).
If you're living for rent, usually also the landlord is liable for your damages! In almost all countries the landlord is liable for electric installation and it's integrity. Secondary damages thereby also fall into his liability as this situation is willing full negligence. He wanted to save a total if 50 bucks, then provide him the multiple digit invoice for the pc, router and every other device that was hooked up to ethernet.
It's an old building with around 6 existing core drills (water, grid, fuel, gas, cable) and I had to add some for outdoor power, outdoor POE, solar and grounding. I hate it but at least it's somewhat normal now. Hausanschlussverstärker feels like a remnant of ancient times but it does the trick and maybe the county will some day jump on the finer train instead of old people trying to fight 5G towers ...
That looks actually really nice. All my wiring is 80 years old and none of my outlets have a ground. I have to use a two-to-three prong adapter on nearly everything I plug in.
If it's near the material that took the current then yeah it could just be melted/exploded indirectly. Lightning makes trees explode if they have sap/moisture in them. Plenty of things can go wrong haha
I'm my neighborhood (india) internet-fibre wires are generally tied up on the same poles as electrical wires. So there's a non-zero chance lightning strike may connect.
Just the immediate area of the strike, it doesn't conduct electricity so it's like striking the ground. But if it's outside then it'll be the ISP job to replace it anyway.
No, fiber is just light. What it could do is fry the equipment in the nearby node and kill the infrastructure that makes fiber possible. Depending on distance etcetcetc
Too late for this situation but you should get some now. Its normally very cheap too if you have an auto insurance policy. And, you may even get a multi-policy discount if that's the case.
We pay the renters insurance on the apartment with our rent but have coverage for our belongings as well. It only costs us like $55 a year with our car insurance.
OP could probably easily just claim the whole computer. It'll seem obvious to a claim adjuster with those pictures that a lightning bolt hitting your computer will fry it for good.
Submit the $4,000 replacement cost, minus $1,000 deductible = $3,000 payout. Turn over the broken computer to the insurance company if asked (but they probably won't ask), use the payout to buy some used parts and make a comparable PC.
"Hello? Insurance company? My house got hit by lightning and the electric surge destroyed my computer. Here's the pictures. It doesn't turn on any more. Here's a screenshot from Dell/iBuyPower/HP for what a comparable computer would cost. Here's an estimate from a local painter to repaint the wall. Money plz."
Depends on the apartment. I’ve had some that require it and some that don’t. At corporate owned apartments and individual landlords for both. That being said, I’ve always carried it when I was renting. It’s cheap and has saved my ass in the past.
Id get with your isp (spectrum/charter) . They didnt bond their line to ground causing the lightning to travel. Put damage claim in with them so they can pay for a new pc
You see that barrel plug in the bottom most picture?
There's a bolt there that has been painted over... This should have had one of two things done during the install of your cable service:
The Barrel plug from the drop to your home should have been replaced with a new mounting bracket and ground wire.
The bolt should have been removed, the threads cleaned, and then a ground wire connected.
This is 100% on the Cable Tech who installed your service.
Under no circumstances should a drop from the pole/conduit go into a customer's home without the grounding wire installed on the junction from the Drop to the CPE (Customer Premise Equipment).
Because this grounding wire was not installed, the Cable Company is fully responsible for the damage to your CPE.
Contact your cable provider and informed them that you have had damage due to lightning strike and that you discovered there is NO grounding wire connected to the bracket that connects your home to the pole.
They will fight you, but inform them that at bare minimum, they must install a new grounding wire as they are responsible for all outside wiring.
I worked at Cablevision for 13 years, I no longer work there, but feel free to ask me questions. This shit isn't acceptable and the tech who installed it should find another position if he hasn't already been fired. This is agitating because it's Pole-Work-101: GROUND. YOUR. DROP.
What did you do bro? Did you massacre a bunch of puppies or something? You majorly pissed off some higher power, this is the only explanation for this level of being unlucky.
Sorry if im ignorant, I am an architect in Singapore. It is mandatory for all houses here to be constructed with a regulated and approved Lightning Protection System with Lightning Rods and Grounding systems.
Is it not the case in the States? The systems installed here cost only slightly above 10k. Even the worst lightning strikes (which do happen here) causes the circuit breaker to trip at best.
Most of those only protect against your standard power surges not a direct lightning strike. Once you hit the voltages of lightning the small gaps in your surge protector between protective components essentially mean nothing.
I do too! And while I start thinking I’m just wasting my time unplugging then replugging them, posts from situations like OPs reassures me I’m likely taking the correct precautions.
Save your money. Surge protectors are nothing more than a tiny neon gas bulb inside a power strip. It gives slightly higher voltage a place to discharge, but it cannot do wonders against significantly higher voltages, like those coming from a direct lightning strike.
I was a cable tech for 10 years and I can't tell you how many times I saw this happen. This happens when the mainline from outside is not grounded which is WAY too common. But if there was a lightning strike near your house nothing will stop this from happening. Sorry it happened to you, check your renters insurance, I'm sure there is something that could help you.
You can contact your ISP or Internet Company and they will need to replace your PC. The cable isn't grounded correctly.
As for learning here always get a solid UPS unit for thunderstorms (good ones are about $300-400) and wait it out. If you can't do that you should definitely unplug all of your stuff during the storm.
For those who may say "a UPS won't protect against a Lightning strike" this is true! You unplug your UPS from the wall and run necessary power to what you need via its battery. That way you'll usually still have Internet and some emergency charging.
This is fairly common actually. My family's TV was fried via coax one time back when we still used it (nowhere near this explosive though), and I've heard of at least one other person I personally know who got a lightning bolt routed into his electronics via a coax.
Just the unfortunate reality of a cable that's commonly routed on the outside of houses and nobody thinks about putting it behind a surge protector because it's a signal cable.
They make surge protectors with coax lines for just this reason. They bond the shield on the cable to the ground pin on your plug, and they have a glass tube full of argon that arcs to ground to absorb the hit. They do require a good building ground to work correctly. It looks like you have one right next to this blowout that wasn't grounded - there should be a ground wire in that bolt that would have prevented this. Call your cable company and make them pay for repairs - this looks like negligence.
My ex-husband would always have us unplug our computers during lighting/thunder storms when we lived out in Arizona. Don't get many storms now where I live, but still have that habit when the rare ones happen. 😬
If installed correctly, this really cannot happen. And I'm talking about the cable system on the building. All of the electrical impulse of a lightning strike should be shunted to ground via a lightning arrestor that is required by law.
The arrestor is connected to a ground rod. You should see a ground rod on the building where the cable comes in. There should be a wire between the arrestor and that rod. This photo shows that there isn't one at this location but I have to wonder if there's one in place. If not, the ISP should be contacted and made aware of this situation. If they don't offer to replace the equipment in full it's time to file a complaint and a lawsuit.
Somebody skipped some major steps during construction, and inspections overlooked it. Lightning coming into my dwelling would be a serious infraction. Personally, I would call the cable / whatever company and ask them how to contact their legal department and then send them a bill. Remember that consumers are entitled to three times damages. At least in the US.
This is why I am so paranoid, I literally unplug my computer from the wall each night ( since electrical surges are a thing where I live mostly because of unreliable power) this is after the fact that I have a proper home wiring with the appropriate breakers as well as the automatic voltage based tripping system.
I don't use ethertnet which I guess also helps essentially keep my computer be a one wire solution.
P.s. I can't afford a UPS right now but that's the next step
When I was a kid we had to turn off all electronics during thunder storms because adults said this would happen. This is the first time I've seen it happen.
Two things: your apartment complex can file a claim and pay for your computer. Why? Because that is a utility grounding problem. Coax should be grounded at the house entry point just like a normal power line. This was not installed correctly.
Also, get yourself a surge protector that routes coax through it and also has all of your gear plugged into it. Once a surge is tripped, get a new surge protector unless otherwise stated for that particular piece of equipment because low quality ones will sometimes be one time surge protection.
Not all electrical wall plugs are surge protectors.
I had this happen at my old apartment. My PC was hooked up to a UPS but the motherboard itself got fried through the Ethernet cord to the router. Fortunately it was just the motherboard.
The replacement was just below the deductible so I had to pay for it out of pocket.
Wow, that's pretty terrible. Scary it happened at night - I'd forever be worried about random fires starting when I least expected it.
I have two outbuildings that I ran internet into and at the suggestion of a friend, I used SFP ports and fiber - specifically to limit the blast radius of a lightning strike. Now Im thinking I might just use SFP from my modem to my firewall too - for the same reason. The thought of having to re-setup all my vlan junk is enough to make me just cringe.
I would definitely be trying to pump some money out of the cable company for not having an earth ground on that grounding block. Grounding is the whole point of the fucking thing. When I was installing cable 20 years ago they took money out of my pocket if they caught me doing that on an install, so they must have thought it was liability on their end if it wasn't done and a surge hit cusstomer equipment....like your exact situation here.
I forget the exact reason why but ethernet is the most susceptible to lightning strikes, so the first thing you should actually unplug during a thunderstorm is all your internet. The rest can survive power line surges if you have any form of surge protector in line.
Not always. A few years back a transformer blew in our neighborhood. It was the middle of a sunny day. The electric surge into our house caused several light bulbs to pop, and shot enough power to melt cables and put burn marks on the outlets. Anything not on a surge protector died, obviously. but all my computers and tv were on surge protectors (3 different brands bought over the years. Hi joule rating, 2 belkin and 1 other brand) All the surge protectors were fried. One of the PCs psus was blown and had to be replaced, and our tv started having weird issues.
Called the power company and they claimed that the small print on the service agreement exempted them. Renters insurance denied my claims.
9.0k
u/Nothing9701 Jun 04 '26
This has to be one of the most unlucky things of all time I swear