So, with the massive thunderstorms in Viriginia last night....i'm screwed!

Damage tally:

Denon 2307CI - Fried (or, red blinking power light)
PS3 - Fried (not outputting video via HDMI)
DTV Receiver - Fried (not outputting video via HDMI)
Cordless phone base stations - Fried
Printer - Fried
Wireless Router - Fried
Corded Phone - Fried
Macbook Pro power adapter - fried. Luckily the laptop was not attached to the adapter. The other MBP was on an outlet not affected.

last night there was a bright flash immediately followed by a loud boom, shaking of the house and a explosion type noise.

I'm in a end unit in a 4 townhouse complex. later that night, I was jarred out of sleep by a bright light that I assumed was lightning, but the light did not extinguish. I looked out the window and was greeted by the spot lights of fire trucks. Turns out the neighbor was woken by the sound of a fire alarm and the smell of smoke.

This morning I saw the damage. The room on the other side of my home theater was redecorated by dust and fallen drywall. Turns out that the electricity from the bolt blew out her ceiling. What I don't understand is how my electronics (except the TV) were affected when they were hooked up to my Monster Power HTS 3600 MKII.

The only thing I can think of is that I have my surround wires going up the wall that had the current raging through it. Now I'm worried that my speakers (all of them) are blown. I have no way of checking this since I don't have a receiver to hook them up to. I borrowed my parents blu-ray player and have confirmed that the TV works. I think i'll borrow their receiver tonight to do a test.

That really sucks. Will you get to have any stuff replaced either by insurance or Monster? I don't know how that all works.

A lightning flash-over can induce current in any run of wire.

No surge suppressor is able to shunt all the energy of a direct strike to ground.

Hope you have some other form of insurance other than what is offered by Monster. Their promises look good, but when it actually comes time to file the claim I've heard of nothing but head aches.

I've seen the damage lightning can do first hand in both my personal and professional life. A girl friend of mine loves rain and lightning storms. I used to until I started working for a communications company with radio towers all over the county.

I'm very sorry to hear that My sincerest wishes for the best of luck in getting things sorted out.

Yikes!! So sorry to hear that.

I only heard and saw very distant thunder and lightning last night up here in Leesburg. We always seem to be spared the worst of every kind of weather.

Sorry to hear about the damage. Your best insurance in an electrical storm is to unplug your electronics. Hopefully everything will be covered by home insurance.

My condolences to your equipment Vass. Don't want to sound repetitive but hopefully it's covered(should be).

wow that sucks! good luck!

Let us know how your speakers turn out. Best wishes in getting everything sorted out with your insurance.

V, add my expression of sympathy to the list. This again illustrates that Monster Power or any other surge suppressor has a limited window of usefulness. Modern AV equipment has built-in resistance to moderately strong power surges and handles them routinely. Some surges stronger than that can be suppressed without permanent damage, but a near direct lightning strike such as you've described can't be stopped.

Speakers appear to be fine!!!

Normally, during storms like this, I will unplug the sensitive equipment. But I was taken by surprise as the storm hit while i was sleeping.

I called my insurance company yesterday and should hear back shortly.

Thank you all for the support.

Believe me, I don't mean to sound flip.... but maybe this was Mother Nature's way of getting you some upgrades?

Once again Mark shows he is worthy of his Mancard Platinum!

Mark, i've already been pricing the upgrades:

Going from a 2307CI to a 2310CI

Going from a PS3 to an Oppo BDP83

I'm not sure how the Insurance stuff works (do I need receipts?)...the 2307 is kinda old (3 yrs or so) but the PS3 is fairly recent (40gb version).

Total cost for the new components $1368 including shipping and taxes.

If you have receipts, get them ready in case they want to see them. But for that amount they may just write you a check (minus the deductible) no questions asked.

IF you choose to keep us updated, it will be interesting to get a first hand of how Monster lives up to its claims.

My only experience is a near strike years ago that ran in on my Cable. I experienced the same "BOOM" and bright light. I waited for 2 days for the cable to come back on before I started checking (I was young and naive). When I finally started tracing back, on the outside of the house where the original cable installer had run a ground wire off the main cable into the ground via a special connection. The lightning surge had blown the connector to bits and I had bare wires hanging out. When the cable guy came and repaired it, my VHS player was fried. Fortunately the surge stopped there and did not affect my TV.

I remember when lighting knocked my 36 inch tv out. I had insurance on it through HH Gregg. It cost me $1400 dollars when I bought it new, but only cost about $700 when I went to get my new one. HH Gregg gave me $1400 dollars instore credit to play with. I ended up with a nice flat screen out of the deal!

Here's to hoping you get the same upgrades from your situation. That really sucks, but at least the loss was only electronics, they can be replaced easily. When I had my fire I lost a lot of things that can't be replaced. I'm not trying to sound unsympathetic, I'm just saying thank goodness it wasn't worse. Hope your insurance company and Monster get you reimbursed quickly.

I went through my house with a video camera a while back and recorded all of my electronics, recorded the serial numbers, and took photos of receipts if I had them. I placed it all on a cd in case I was robbed or something.

In your case, you have all of the equipment sitting in your house (broken, but still there) so I guess that would be proof enough that you own the item and that it is broken due to lightning strike.

Hopefully they don't estimated the depreciated value of your equipment well below what it is worth (I don't think they will give you what you paid for everything)

good luck!

In most cases they will give you 'replacement value' on your belongings. So if you have a 3808 for instance that you paid $1400 dollars for when you bought it new, but now you can get one for $1000 dollars, they will give you $1000 dollars. That's what surprised me when I took my claim to HH Gregg and they gave me $1400 dollars instore credit when the exact same TV I had only cost $700 by then.

I don't know what Monster's guarantee is though. It would be sweet if you could get both companies to reimburse you!

Now would be the time to read the fine print.

We had a couple of rumbling storms roll through Southern Ontario today and because of this thread, I unplugged all my HT equipment for safety. Maybe in 3-4 yrs I'll leave it plugged in if I think I want to upgrade and if insurance will cover it

Years ago, my daughter was on a softball team. They were having a practice and a heavy thunderstorm was approaching. My wife and I were sitting in the car watching as were a lot of other parents. I kept thinking that the "coach" would call it off - he just kept on like nothing was happening. I was counting the seconds between the flash and the thunder and getting more agitated with each passing moment - not wanting to embarass my daughter but struggling with my knowledge that you should get out of the open in a storm.....duh?
Finally there was a flash and I didn't even get to 3 seconds before the boom. I ripped open the car door, strode up to the field, called my daughter by name and said "get in the car". What did the "coach" do? He had been hitting fungos and grounders - He looked at me like I was a ***** and raised the aluminum bat up to the sky. I have never wished "ill" on anyone but I did, on this occaision, think to myself "don't kill him, but at least knock him on his a$$. Of course, nothing happened - except that most of the other parents followed my lead and pulled their children off the field............

When I read that, I couldn't help but think of the scene in "Gone Fishing" where Joe Pesci gets hit by lightning when him and Danny Glover's car breaks down in the everglades.

Absolutely a true story. When I was in the Army, one guy in the platoon bought a high-speed one man shelter. (high speed in Army'ese means 'really cool'). But he needed some anchor points to prop it up. So he went around and borrowed about 8 Entrenching tools (shovel that folds up/comes an axe) from us. He drove it into the ground around him and erected the one man tent.

Then it started to pour and while the rest of us were getting *ABSOLUTELY SOAKED* he was laughing and having a great ol' time. Then the lightning strikes came and all laughing stopped. All we heard was "hey guys, can you come and get your Etools!?!" *then* the rest of us were laughing!

Unfortunately, a soldier in another platoon (half a klick away) died after getting hit by lightning.

So I don't blame you one bit for pulling your daughter out.

I see that "coach" every now and then - I am pretty sure he can't place where he knows me from. The first word that pops in my head when I see him is "dumba**"