Head over here and check this site out.

Especially watch this video, the very last part is unbelievable.

The in-laws live in a different city, but bought a house near us to live near their grandchildren when they retire. They are gone most of the time, but I go over there from time to time to collect the mail and check on the house.

Today, I received a call from the neighbor who mows the yard; shingles had blown off and were in the yard again. I head over there, expecting to just nail a few back in place, and see this:

Wow, that’s alot of damage for a simple thunderstorm. Looks more like someone put a foot through roof.

Inside, it’s no better.

Even hail wouldn’t do that!

Then I notice the duct. Now keep in mind, it’s dark up in that attic, and I did not have the camera at that point. In the dark, it looked a little charred, which I found very odd.

You can see from the picture above that there was definitely high heat involved.

It damn near severed that heating/ac duct!

Well, the neighbor seems to believe this was a lighting strike, and I’m inclined to agree. Notice that it struck the hanging bracket for the duct, which is made of metal.

I patched the hole as best I could, and with the neighbors help, covered it with ill-matching shingles. As of this writing it has already started raining, and we are supposed to have further thunderstorms tonight. Hopefully, this patch will hold until they can get the roof replaced.

Lighting, imagine that. This could have been much worse. It does lead one to question the intelligence of using metal in the attic for hanging ductwork.

Also of note, certain outlets in the house/garage are not functioning, and the telephone will produce no dial tone.