Lightning Strikes Burns Two Villages Homes 8/7/25
 

One home in Calumet Grove and the other in Sabal Chase - and neither had lightning rods.

For some factual information on Lightning and Surge Protection see this link Nextdoor

Lightning is unpredictable and most won't spend the money which is less than the cost of one cruise, to get a lightning protection system.

Here are some pictures of Villagers who decided to take their chances. If your home gets struck by lightning, it will be a life changing experience for you and your family.

Do insurance companies offer a discount to homeowners with lightening rods installed?

I can post thousands of pictures of houses that have NOT been hit by lightning.

And getting this in early, while I believe lightning protection helps, there are too few protected homes around to make the claim that a protection system will guarantee your home will not be affected.

Lighting happens, protection systems help, but suggesting that you are at a high risk of your house burning down without one is an exaggeration.

Posting the date+year and village of All the homes hit by lightning, would be a benefit.

It would also be very informative if you included how many roof tops existed in TV, with each lighting strike. TV has been in existence since the 70s, starting with Mobil homes, some of which were destroyed during tornado, that may have had lighting issues. Even better the number of those who chose to install rods in TV

If residents were aware of the % of home ratio to strike, and damage of either total loss or minimum damage. I am sure that data is available for you to share since this thread is about the need to buy lightning rods

Not that I know of -- at least not for me. However to me, a lightning rod system is well worth the investment, since insurance will never compensate all the loses nor the time and anxiety of suddenly losing your home -- and being on vacation during the loss is even worse.

The Villages Lightning Study Group is looking for volunteers to do just that. Learn more at the Weather Club, where "Lightning" presentations are given annually and at many other Villages clubs and groups ... The Villages Weather Club

In my experience with corporate risk assessment, two factors (among others) that are considered are the likelihood of an event happening and the impact if the event does happen. Usually, even if the likelihood is low, when the impact is very large, efforts are made to mitigate the risk. I was leading the development of a product when a nearly catastrophic event which was considered unlikely actually occurred. After a large effort, we were able to fix the problem and the product went into production. I have become much more conservative in working on risk assessments since then.

In other words, get out of Florida or play lightning roulette?:loco:

So - dtennant - curious if you have a lightening protection system on your home. Tx.

I have a similar background.

Key factors influencing my decision to install lightning mitigation as a preventative likelihood/risk reduction include:

* Seven homes struck within a 3 mi radius of our home in the 4 years here.

* Fires tend to start in the attic with the homeowner unaware until a neighbor notified them.

* CSST Gas lines in attic acting as lightning rods:

- the CSST manufacturer recommends LPS in lightening prone areas if installed.

- Several strikes appear to have been at the garage corner where the iron gas line enters the attic.

- Nearby lighting strikes can punch pinholes in the CSST tubing resulting in delayed/undetected gas leaks, until something ignites them.

* The Villages installs LPS on critical buildings and infrastructure.

* LPS is required by code for schools, retirement homes and hospitals.

* There is discussion to add LPS to the building code -installation cost would be much lower during construction.

* It takes 2-3 years to rebuild a home here destroyed by lightening.

* For us, the cost was less than our $2K deductable.

Every Villages home that has burnt from lightning did not have lightning rods.

But where would you move to?
- Coastal hurricanes
- midwest tornadoes
- West coast earthquakes
- northern blizzards
- southwest heat

It's just dangerous to be alive these days

Every Villages home that I have parked my car in front of has not been hit by lightning. Every Villages home that has burnt from lightning has never had my car parked in front of it. Coincidence??


AGAIN: A LPS is probably a really good idea. For most of us, the stress of replacing a home is much more costly than the LPS system.