Summary
A Gloucestershire woman is lucky to be alive after a lightning bolt struck her home. Liz Odell, 67, was away in Cambridge when her Nailsworth home was hit by lightning on April 15. She returned to a home without electricity and several broken devices including her TV, music system and internet router.
Details
Had she been at home in the shower when lightning struck she believes it could have killed her. “I think it probably hit my aerial,” she said. “My neighbour texted me to tell me my house had just been struck by a thunderbolt and my alarm was going off.
“That was strange because I hadn’t actually set the alarm when I’d gone out. The alarm was going off because the power had been disrupted. “[The lightning strike] took out the aerial junction box.
It came down and it burnt out a lamp in the bathroom ceiling. “And, at the moment, the electricians appear to be totally rewiring my first floor because they couldn’t find where the circuit was broken. “At the moment, they’ve got all the carpets up and they are drilling holes in the floor to re-wire it.
“I’ve got to have a new fuseboard, it destroyed my television, sound bar, subwoofer. It broke my music system and it took out my router and BT box. “And my gas boiler is no longer working, so I have no central heating or hot water.
“It was lucky I wasn’t in the house because if I’d been in the shower or touching anything I may well not be here.” Ms Odell said apart from a burnt out bathroom light there is not much evidence of the lightning strike apart from the fact so many of her electrical appliances no longer work. “There’s nothing to see,” she said.
“The only evidence I’ve got is the downlight from the bathroom that is all scorched and blackened. “That’s the only thing I’ve got that you would know there was anything wrong. I got home and nothing was working.
“And there still isn’t 12 days on. It’s being repaired as we speak!” She said it was all dark the evening she returned home. “I went upstairs and the ceiling lights weren’t working,” she said.