In case you didn't already know this bit of wisdom here is further proof of what can happen. Lightning struck my tree in my backyard Sunday night. It was about 10 pm and the wife and I had just crawled into bed when all of a sudden BAM! It was the loudest scariest thing I've ever experienced. I thought my house had blown up. The tree that got struck is about 30 feet from my bedroom window. It blew a hole in the ground next to the tree and blew out of the ground next to the kids playground set about 10 feet away. It also blew off quite a bit of bark and you can see all the debris on the ground from it. I was without power for 22 hours because it totally melted my circuit breaker panel. Surprising it didn't fry my widescreen TV, AV equipment, nor my computers. I think it's because they were on expensive ass surge protectors. It did fry my two wired home phones but not my cordless ones. It also fried a few other minor things like my DSL modem and router, an alarm clock, two directv receivers and a photocell sensor for my landscape lights.