Lightning Damage to Church

[slamjet]

Posted this to my Facebook but thought might be interesting:

 

Last week a phone line was hit by lightning outside our Stake Center. It shot raw power through the building phone system, blowing out the punch-out board and phone jacks. It hit the DSL modem so hard that it arced to the firewall it was sitting on top of, thus the little spot welding on the chassis. Yes, it got killed. The first time I've seen this type of damage from a lightning strike.  Quite frankly, I'm surprised the building didn't burn.

 

This has been the busiest tech-wise I've been in my tech calling.

 

 

 

[NightSG]

And that's why it's important to have lightning protection on all the lines, not just the power lines.

[Palerider]

Posted this to my Facebook but thought might be interesting:

 

Last week a phone line was hit by lightning outside our Stake Center. It shot raw power through the building phone system, blowing out the punch-out board and phone jacks. It hit the DSL modem so hard that it arced to the firewall it was sitting on top of, thus the little spot welding on the chassis. Yes, it got killed. The first time I've seen this type of damage from a lightning strike.  Quite frankly, I'm surprised the building didn't burn.

 

This has been the busiest tech-wise I've been in my tech calling.

 

 

Wow ...... That's scary and amazing.

[Vort]

Amazing. Glad no one was hurt.

[Guest]

Holy cow!

[slamjet]

And that's why it's important to have lightning protection on all the lines, not just the power lines.

 

There was lightning protection at the punch-down board.  Lightning hit the phone line just outside the building, blowing the cable open, jumped the protection at the board and killed a modem, firewall, fax, phone and fried lots of cabling.  Lightning protection is good for most surges but this hit so close and was so strong, I don't thing anything would have been enough protection.

[David13]

Lightening struck the tower or steeple of the St George Temple just after construction was completed.  Thus, they had to build a new tower, and they did change it.

But you cannot protect against all natural, or act of God occurrences.  Stuff sometimes just happens.

At the new Payson Temple, I noticed lightening rods, about a foot or two tall, all around the outside perimeter of the roof of the building.  They looked like thorns sticking up.

Which has to be a good idea, as the Temple is about the tallest thing for miles around.  I don't know how the tower or steeple would fare in a lightening strike.

 

Usually there's no lightening and thunder in Los Angeles, and no rain all during the summer.  But one month ago there was a lightening strike so close that it sounded to me like the building had been bombed.  It shook the walls.  One cat ran and hid, and one cat ran to the window to see what caused it.

 

Also, about a month ago, lightening struck near a meeting house here, near Burbank, started a brush fire, and the brush caught the meeting house on fire, and burned it almost totally down.

dc

Edited August 3, 2015 by David13

[cdowis]

Speaking of building design, I was talking with an architect about the design of the chapels.  It was interesting that in the design, it required a steep  slanted roof to withstand heavy snowfall and ice.  What makes this interesting was this was for chapels in Georgia and Florida.

This was years ago, and don't know if they have changed that requirement.

 

A friend was a trucker who hauled construction materials for the Atlanta temple.  He said that he was very surprised to see that the supporting materials were designed to withstand a serious earthquake.

Edited August 4, 2015 by cdowis

[David13]

I understand they build them solid, to last a long time. 

I've heard about earthquake capabilty of the Salt Lake Temple as well.

In terms of Georgia, remember that the most severe earthquake to hit the United States was centered on New Madrid Mo?  Or Ak?

In terms of steep roofs they have torrential rains in Florida.  A steep roof is a good idea.

One of the major things that drives me nuts about California is ... flat roofs.

They always leak.  It's just the nature of the beast.  Worst, but cheapest type of roof possible.

dc

[NightSG]

There was lightning protection at the punch-down board.  Lightning hit the phone line just outside the building, blowing the cable open, jumped the protection at the board and killed a modem, firewall, fax, phone and fried lots of cabling.  Lightning protection is good for most surges but this hit so close and was so strong, I don't thing anything would have been enough protection.

 

Did the board have a robust ground lead?  Even the best lightning protection can't do anything unless there's another path to ground that can handle the surge.  Of course, the best is a set of gas gaps right where it meets the wall, with a short chunk of the heaviest cable you can get to a ground rod directly underneath, but the more you can do, the better.  Stacking that with good surge protection at the inside board should stop nearly anything.

 

For that matter, I've seen huge improvements in day to day signal quality just from swapping out a 8ga ground lead to 00 welding wire in one case, and from adding a couple more ground rods in another.

 

As with anything, you can go overboard; I have a friend that worked for one of the Dallas radio stations at their transmitter tower.  I don't recall how many hundred direct strikes they averaged per year, but he said replacing gas gaps and checking other protection was a full time job for new tower personnel.  The grounding system cost a fortune, (literally tons of copper wire buried in a big spiderweb pattern) but it was both protecting a few million in equipment and improving their signal quality, so it was worth the expense.

[NightSG]

Speaking of building design, I was talking with an architect about the design of the chapels.  It was interesting that in the design, it required a steep  slanted roof to withstand heavy snowfall and ice.  What makes this interesting was this was for chapels in Georgia and Florida.

 

Steep roofs are a tradeoff; higher direct wind load (wind lift depends on a few other factors) vs expected snow load.  Here, our expected snow load is in the <5 lb/sf category, (I've never had a design fail engineering approval on snow load.) but some of the solar arrays I've designed (for 90mph sustained wind) have been damaged by what NOAA estimated was a few minutes of 120+mph wind.  (It says a lot that the insurer didn't even try to fault the design after looking at the other damage in the area.)

 

Sounds like the Church was guilty of what WalMart shot themselves in the foot with for a long time; they based sales and product availability on Bentonville without regard to whether folks in Minnesota would still want sweaters in March instead of swimsuits.  At least they leave the thermostat in the hands of the locals.   :)

Edited August 4, 2015 by NightSG

[Blackmarch]

Lightening struck the tower or steeple of the St George Temple just after construction was completed.  Thus, they had to build a new tower, and they did change it.

But you cannot protect against all natural, or act of God occurrences.  Stuff sometimes just happens.....

dc

the background story that's told to that is that the prophet Brigham young had asked for a different design originally.... so on the second time I believe they used the design the prophet called for for at first.

hehe

[pam]

Speaking of building design, I was talking with an architect about the design of the chapels.  It was interesting that in the design, it required a steep  slanted roof to withstand heavy snowfall and ice.  What makes this interesting was this was for chapels in Georgia and Florida.

This was years ago, and don't know if they have changed that requirement.

 

A friend was a trucker who hauled construction materials for the Atlanta temple.  He said that he was very surprised to see that the supporting materials were designed to withstand a serious earthquake.

 

Georgia was hit with some pretty bad snow and ice storms last year.  Sounds like there was some inspiration with this.

[Str8Shooter]

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that will prevent electrical damage from a close lightning strike and be economically feasible for a homeowner or consumer.