Blown Off-line!!

[Pro-Storm]

Last friday around 5:45pm....a typical afternoon thunderstorm developed west of St. George, SC where I live. Nothing unusual, dark cloud....lots of lightning.....so I parked my butt on the porch to view the splendor. Suddenly....I hear a familiar crash in the front yard (we have large pecan trees in the front) Jumping to my feet...I ran through the house and out the front door to see a large pecan branch (at least 2000 lbs.) laying across my driveway. Then I noticed the power cables under the branch. I ran around to the side of the house only to find my electrical service...meter can and all.....along with my telephone and cable tv....all ripped completely off the side of my house!!! Felt like the old days of hurricane Hugo to me!! When the SCE&G guys got there, they told me I would need to get an electrician to fix the service. Good thing I am an electrician eh? I had the service re-built long before they had the tree cut up!! Just been having some big time touble getting back on-line after the phone guy left (DSL) Anyways....it was real exciting and I figured everyone here would appreciate the story!! :38:

[ColdFront77]

What a story, Pro-Storm. Thanks for sharing it. The advantages of being an electrician.

[Pro-Storm]

I failed to mention the sudden blast of wind associated with that storm....the pecan trees hate the wind!!

[Pro-Storm]

I also failed to mention that this occured on Friday the 13th! Go figure!

[azsnowman]

You lucky Pro, good thing your vehicle wasn't parked in the driveway, knowing MY luck........Glad to hear it was just cables etc and NOT someone under it!

Dennis

[JCT777]

Wow! :o Glad to hear you are OK and that nothing else was damaged. And of course Friday the 13th couldn't just be a sunny, pleasant day.

[Stormsfury]

Glad to hear you're alright, Pro ... Those were some very strong cells last Friday - we missed the worse here in the Lower part of the county ...

[Pileus]

Pro, being an electrician you might get a jolt out of what happened at our
home several years ago here in Rock Hill during a 10 inch snowfall. A
huge cedar tree took out one of the two service lines coming into my
house plus a line ( forget the name of the cable ) that is suppose to
prevent the power from surging back to the house. Well when the power
was restored, the one remaining line to my house did not take all the
surge and blew every appliance in my home. The surge protector to my
pc, printer, etc, looked like a well done strip of bacon. Are you familiar
with this happening ? Luckily everything was covered under homeowners
but was scary.

[Pro-Storm]

Hey....thanx guys!! No one was harmed but the house, the kids were scared but they managed. You should've seen the gleam in my eye when the wind picked up to 50mph!! :38:

[David]

Glad your back.

[Pro-Storm]

Pro, being an electrician you might get a jolt out of what happened at our
home several years ago here in Rock Hill during a 10 inch snowfall. A
huge cedar tree took out one of the two service lines coming into my
house plus a line ( forget the name of the cable ) that is suppose to
prevent the power from surging back to the house. Well when the power
was restored, the one remaining line to my house did not take all the
surge and blew every appliance in my home. The surge protector to my
pc, printer, etc, looked like a well done strip of bacon. Are you familiar
with this happening ? Luckily everything was covered under homeowners
but was scary.

Should've had an experianced electrician check all of your wiring before power was restored. Sounds like your service wire "fried" as it was being destroyed by the tree...melted together somewhere in the run...and when the power was restored.......BOOM!!