Community Chat

[golding76]

patbz,

I am sorry that this happened to you and your PC.  Fortunately, nothing else was affected, right?

Wish I knew the answer to your question but I do not.  I do hope that your loss is covered in an amount that brings peace of mind.

(I've been dealing with my insurance company for over a half year now regarding damage and loss.  It is a dismal experience.) 

[msgb]

You will probably need to check homeowners insurance. This happened to us in the past and the insurance covered some items and some out of luck.

[Annabellethecat66]

In 2001 lightning hit a tree in front of our house.

It bounced off of the tree and hit the roof causing the roof to catch on fire.

My house looked like a war zone!  It was mainly caused by the firemen pulling down the ceilings to get to the fire.

Long story...short.  We couldn't live in it for exactly 5 months.

It would have been longer but my husband was a builder and knew how to get things done.  

We had a company coordinating everything with their people doing it after my husband gave them his connections.

It cost the insurance company OVER $300,000 to repair it.

New furniture, new walls, every piece of clothing dry cleaned and washed, etc.

In those five months we had 2 daughters get married and 9/11 happened.

Call your insurance company.  Everyone is different.  We got all new appliances because anything electric could cause a fire after that.

Our insurance says, "SAME AS".  We are lucky that it doesn't say something like "SIMILAR".

Check with them.  Odds are it is covered by your homeowners insurance.  But some insurance companies will only give you what it is worth now.  

No one can tell you what your insurance says, you just need to call them and discuss it with them.

Good luck, please come on and let us know.  I'm curious.

Oh!  By the way, that was the 4th time my house was hit by lightning.  

[Drythe]

@patbz 

Sorry you are dealing with this.

Same situation damaged many of our appliances, homeowners covered replacements.  

[Nuttmeg]

@patbz

Sorry to hear about your situation. You may want to look into a whole house surge protector. 

[NanaFrost]

Most folks don't realize that those plug in surge protector/power strips are only good for a couple of years unless the manufacturer states otherwise.

I had a whole house surge protector put on my breaker box.  Cost wise, it wasn't much more than having to buy multiple surge protectors for every room with electronics and appliances you want to protect.

[Cats3000]

When this gets straightened out, I reccomend 2 things. 

First, talk to an electrician about installing a whole house surge protector.  We had one in Orlando (lightning captial of the world?) and we currently have one in our home in  New Hampshire.

Second, buy a surge protector for the outlet that you have your computer plugged in to.  Plug the computer, your printer if you have one and any other computer-related devices into it.

Nothing is guaranteed, but these steps have helped us with lightning.

[77yangya]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

@patbz   I'd guess homeowner's insurance.  It's probably considered an Act of God.  I know it's locking the barn after the horse is stolen, but you might want to consider a good surge protector, and not one of those strips. 

How are your TVs and other appliances?  I guess you had a good storm over in Show Low.  Partly cloudy but sunny here. 

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Homeowner's does not cover personal belongings in your house unless you have a rider and you must specify everything being covered along with proof of its worth.

[SilleeMee]

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@77yangya wrote:

Homeowner's does not cover personal belongings in your house unless you have a rider and you must specify everything being covered along with proof of its worth.

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My homeowners ins, which is pretty standard, covered all of my personal belongings which were damaged in the lightening strike. My ins company sent me a check to cover the losses and/or repairs for my belongings .It was a substantial check and the amount covered the losses and some.

[FS74]

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@patbz wrote:

Thank you for all the replies. I have contacted USAA and they will cover after deductible is applied.  Can't reach APS ( line busy) so Ill visit them on Monday.

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Our neighbors tree got hit during the summer years ago and fried our furnace. This was before we got a/c and didn't notice until we had to turn on the furnace. Our homeowners covered it, but they had to check the weather reports around the time of the strike to make sure there was a storm on that day. It took awhile, but they did cover it. 

It got our Sony TV also but that was a nightmare getting them fo fix it. Sony ended up giving us the money the TV was worth at the time since it was trashed.I can't remember why the homeowners wouldn't cover it but we did have seperate insurance to cover the TV.