{"id":2272,"date":"2017-08-08T16:21:43","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T20:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.greatflorida.com\/blog\/?p=2272"},"modified":"2026-04-16T19:50:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:50:57","slug":"lightning-strikes-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/2017\/lightning-strikes-home\/","title":{"rendered":"When lightning strikes your home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people know Florida as the lightning capital in the U.S. A legitimate claim considering lightning struck seven homes in the Panama City area last week, during a severe thunderstorm. In fact, last year Florida paid out the most in homeowners insurance<\/a> claims from lightning strikes and electrical surges. 10,385 claims totaled $67.8 million according to the Insurance Information Institute<\/a> (III).<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as your home is sufficiently covered by your homeowners insurance<\/a> policy, you are covered for lighting strikes and related damage,\u201d says Dustyn Shroff<\/a>, Vice President of GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a>, Florida\u2019s largest independent homeowners insurance<\/a> agency. Actually, lighting falls under \u201cperils\u201d in your homeowners insurance<\/a> coverage.<\/p>\n

Since we are in the midst of storm season, we want to familiarize you with the following tips on how to protect you and your home during a thunderstorm.<\/p>\n

\"LPI_lightning_infographic_2015\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Safety Tips<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best place to be during a thunderstorm is inside your home or office. Do not touch anything that can conduct electricity including: electrical appliances, metal surfaces such as a sliding door or anything connected to your plumbing system. Avoid anything served by your gas lines such as water heaters, ovens, furnaces and fireplaces.<\/p>\n

Additionally, lightning strikes can be responsible for power surges- a sudden spike in electricity that can cause real damage. Most homeowners insurance<\/a> policies including those at GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a> offer financial protection against power surge damage.<\/p>\n

As a general rule of thumb, Great Florida Insurance <\/a>recommends you annually review your homeowners insurance<\/a>. Make sure your coverage is consistent with the current replacement cost of your home and valuables. In the unfortunate event of a lightning strike and resulting damage to your home.<\/p>\n

Lightning Protection System<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lightning protection system is designed to protect a structure. The Lightning Protection Institute<\/a> (LPI) describes a lighting protection system as, \u201cThe highly conductive copper and aluminum materials used in a lighting protection system provide a low resistance path to safely ground lightning\u2019s dangerous electricity.\u201d Essentially, an updated version of the lightning rod. \u00a0It intercepts a strike and directs it to the ground without impact to the structure, occupants or contents.<\/p>\n

Surge Protection Device<\/strong><\/p>\n

A surge protector offers some safety to your electronics from power surges and strikes. Do not confuse it with a power strip, which merely offers more electrical outlets and does not offer any real protection from electrical issues. Cnet.com<\/a> explains, surge protectors offer some level of protection against power spikes. The level of protection varies based on how many joules, (unit of energy). \u201cGenerally, the more the joules, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this reason, protect your home\u00a0from damage that can occur from lightning strikes, power surges and fire with a homeowners insurance<\/a> policy from GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GoggleImage_Home_H_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people know Florida as the lightning capital in the U.S. A legitimate claim considering lightning struck seven homes in the Panama City area last week, during a severe thunderstorm. In fact, last year Florida paid out the most in homeowners insurance claims from lightning strikes and electrical surges. 10,385 claims totaled $67.8 million according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1219,"featured_media":2285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-homeowners-insurance","8":"category-floridainsurance","9":"category-umbrella-insurance"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13844,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272\/revisions\/13844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}