Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to keep computers unplugged in such situations, and mine was, although I had left my modem plugged into a surge protector. Watching the storm through my bed room window, I saw a fire ball - somewhat similar to a firecracker that explodes out of nowhere, detonate too close to my house.

Our home alarm rang, the smoke alarms beeped, the phones went dead. The motor of our air conditioner ceased to run, and my modem (which I rent from my ISP) was no more.

I have since replaced my modem (I had a spare lying around from years ago which I used to update the site once the phone lines returned). But you are most likely all wondering what my real point is here… well first, I wanted to apologize for the slight interruption (about an hour or so) of service, and second wanted to warn all of you who think you are safe behind your surge protector that really you aren’t. I had invested in a heavy duty protector to prevent such a problem, unfortunately it simply wasn’t enough.