As for "why so many" see
this article.
Seeing 4, 5, 6 homes in The Villages per year being struck, and some totally lost to fire, we bought a Lightning Protection System and whole house surge protection a few years ago. While typical homeowners insurance covers damage, it's the inconvenience of losing possessions and living elsewhere for the year or two it takes to rebuild the home that makes it easy to justify.
The Lightning Protection System, a network of 6 or 7 lightning rods on the typical home, will divert a direct strike from your roof to the ground. The surge protection is used to protect from the ground surge of electricity that happens when lightning hits the ground nearby, nextdoor, or a few houses away. I like the belt + suspenders approach of having both.
There are two fully certified firms that install lightning protection in The Villages. Both have good reputations (and long backlogs). Don't use just any electrician for this work, use properly certified people.
A1 lightning Protection
352-465-0620
Triangle Lightning Protection
352-483-7020
If you want a better sense of the activity, download the "
My Lightning Tracker" app to your phone and watch it during any of our summer afternoon storms.
P.S. I am not financially involved with either of these firms, but am a pleased customer of A1.