Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground during a thunderstorm. Lightning can occur within a thunderstorm cloud or between the cloud and the ground.
Lightning is very dangerous and can cause property damage, fire, injuries, and death. If lightning strikes your home, it’s likely that you'll sustain some type of damage, from a power outage at a minimum, to localized burn damage, smoke damage, and fully engulfed fires.
Lightning can strike anyplace on Earth at any time. There are about 6,000 lightning strikes every minute and more than 8 million strikes every day. In residential areas, it's a real threat to property and lives. In 2024, more than 55,000 homeowners in the U.S. filed claims for lightning damage.
If you have homeowners insurance, will it cover the damage caused by a lightning strike? An independent insurance agent will help you get the home insurance you need.
What Types of Damage Does Lightning Cause?
If lightning directly strikes your house, several different hazards are present and can cause damage.
- Fire: The risk of fire is very high after lightning strikes your home. Lightning commonly ignites flammable material in and outside of buildings, igniting fires directly or igniting materials when the current passes through them and heats them. Wood and other flammable building materials can easily be ignited anywhere that a lightning channel comes in contact with and passes through the materials. Lightning fires most often start in the attic or on the roof because the lightning channel typically passes through some of the structural material in the roof before it can reach a more conductive path through wiring or pipes. When lightning current travels through wires, it will often burn them up, potentially igniting a fire anywhere along the affected circuits.
- Power surge: If your home’s electrical wiring is the primary or secondary path of the lightning, the explosive surge can damage even non-electronic appliances that are connected. Even if most of the lightning current takes other paths to ground, you can expect your home's electrical system and connected electronics to be damaged.
- Shock wave: Lightning can create an audible shock wave (like thunder) that can be destructive at close range. It can fracture concrete, brick, cinderblock, and stone, often causing brick and stone chimneys to be damaged by lightning. The shock waves can also blow out plaster walls, shatter glass, create trenches in soil, and crack foundations. You might even find shrapnel embedded in your walls.
Structural damage to homes and other structures can range from minor electrical damage to fully engulfed fires. Any type of lightning damage can be costly to repair.
Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Lightning Strikes?
Homeowners insurance covers damage caused by lightning. In fact, lightning is one of the specific “covered perils” that is listed in most basic "named-perils" home insurance policies. Other policies, called "all-perils" policies, also cover damage caused by lightning.
Your home insurance will typically offer the following types of coverage that may apply to any damage caused by a lightning strike.
- Dwelling coverage: Covers the physical structure of your home and any attached structures from certain covered perils, including lightning. It also covers items like plumbing, heating, permanently installed air conditioning systems, and electrical wiring.
- Other structures coverage: Covers lightning damage to other structures on the property, such as detached garages, tool sheds, retaining walls, and so on.
- Personal property coverage: Covers the cost of repairing or replacing your personal belongings, like your furniture, clothing, and electronics, if lightning causes a fire or some other type of damage.
- Loss of use coverage: Helps you with additional living expenses if your home is damaged by a covered peril (e.g., lightning) and you cannot live in your home while repairs are being made. It typically covers expenses like housing, meals, storage, and more, as long as they are in line with your usual living expenses.
It’s important to understand your homeowners insurance policy, so you know the types of coverage you have in the event of a lightning strike or some other type of loss.
Does Renters Insurance Cover Lightning Strikes?
Like homeowners insurance, renters insurance covers lightning damage. While you're not responsible for covering the structure of your home if you're a renter, the personal property coverage in your renters insurance policy covers the cost of repairing or replacing your personal belongings, like your furniture, clothing, and electronics, if lightning causes a fire or some other type of damage.
Likewise, renters insurance includes loss of use coverage to help you with additional living expenses if you must temporarily move out of your rental unit while repairs are being made.
Three Ways to Protect Your Home from Lightning Strikes
There are some steps you can take to protect your home from lightning damage. These include:
- Consider installing a lightning protection system. A lightning protection system will not prevent your house from being struck by lightning, but will instead provide a safe path from the location of the lightning strike (usually the roof) to the ground, minimizing the damage. If your home does not have a lightning protection system, the surge of electricity will carry along any conduit it can find, including your water pipes, gas pipes, and wiring systems (including cable or telephone lines), damaging everything in its wake and potentially igniting a fire.
- Unplug appliances and electronic devices. In addition to causing fires, lightning can create a power surge that damages your home or business electronics. If your appliances and electronics are unplugged during the storm, you can avoid some extensive and expensive damage.
- Install surge suppressors. Unplugging electronics is always the best option, but lightning storms will still happen while you’re not at home or at work. Transient voltage surge protectors will limit the voltage flowing to your electronics to 1.5 times the normal voltage, thereby limiting the damage that a large surge could cause.
None of these tactics will prevent lightning from striking your home, but they can help minimize the damage.
How to Protect Your Family From Lightning
The first rule is to take lightning seriously. It’s true that getting struck by lightning is rare, but when it happens, it can result in severe injury or death. And yes, lightning can and often does strike twice in the same place.
Lightning safety tips
| Outdoors |
|---|
| If you hear thunder, go indoors or find the nearest shelter. If your car is nearby, get in your car and wait out the storm. |
| If no shelter is available, crouch low with as little of your body touching the ground as possible. |
| Avoid open areas. |
| Stay away from isolated tall trees or utility poles. |
| If you are with a group of people, spread out. |
| Stay away from concrete floors or walls. Lightning can travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring. |
| In a Vehicle |
|---|
| Pull the vehicle over to the side of the road and shut off the engine. |
| Sit with your hands in your lap until the storm passes. |
| Never use a CB radio or other radio during a lightning storm, or handle metal components of a vehicle (e.g., the gear shifter, steering wheel, or keys in the ignition) during a thunderstorm. |
| Indoors |
|---|
| Avoid water during a thunderstorm. Don't take a shower or wash your hands. |
| Avoid electronic equipment of all types as well as wiring, metal objects, and appliances like washers and dryers. |
| Avoid corded phones. Cordless or cellular phones are safe to use during a storm. |
| Always close every window in the home at the first hint of a thunderstorm. |
Keep these tips handy in case a storm happens in your area. But also be familiar with how to respond to local lightning warnings ahead of time. Remember the phrase, “When thunder roars, go indoors," as a best practice for avoiding lightning.
What to Do If Your Home Gets Struck by Lightning
Chances are that if your home is struck by lightning, you’ll know it. You’ll likely experience an explosive boom, your house may shake, and your power will likely go out, at least temporarily.
Here are some steps to take if your home is struck by lightning:
- Gather everyone in the home and make sure there are no injuries.
- If you see or smell fire or smoke, evacuate the home.
- Call 911 even if you don’t detect a fire. Small, undetectable fires could be smoldering inside your wiring or walls. The fire department will assess your home for damage and will likely use thermal imaging cameras to search inside the walls for heat and fire.
- If your home is determined to be safe, you’ll be allowed to return inside. Immediately call your insurance agent or insurance company to begin the claims process.
Even if your home has been deemed safe by the fire department, it’s important to call an electrician to do an extensive inspection of your home’s wiring to make sure it has not been damaged.
How an Independent Insurance Agent Can Help You Get the Best Homeowners Insurance
Lightning can severely damage your home, and it’s important to have the right homeowners insurance in place to ensure that you’re covered when you need it. That’s where an independent insurance agent can help.
A local independent agent can not only help you get quality, affordable home insurance, but also help you understand your coverage so there are no surprises.
Sources
https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-lightning
