Part 1
It was a dark and stormy (well, ice storm) Friday morning - February 2, 1996! There we were, sound asleep in our warm toasty bed. Just before 6 AM, it began! Something woke Janis up - a strange electrical sounding Boom! She rolled over and asked Dave "What was that?" His response was "Don't worry about it - it's just the electrical lines". Alright, so she rolled over and closed her eyes, only to hear another BOOM! And about 10 seconds later, a gigantic KABOOM!!!!!!!
Dave jumped up, ran to the window, and looked out ---- "It's on my truck!!!" The power line had fallen and was draped across the top of Dave's service truck, laying in the yard and arcing!!! ZZZTTTT!!!!!!
We both raced downstairs, and looked out the window - by now his truck was on fire - flames were rolling out from underneath it (just inches from Dave's Car)! Electricity was arcing off the wheels, around the tires and to the ground.
Dave grabbed the phone to call 911 - guess again, the phone was dead!!! So he grabbed his cellular phone and dialed 911. After relating the story, he quite emphatically (expletives politely not recreated here) informed the operator that he needed a fire truck now!!!
Then he called the power company to report the downed line - after being on hold for about 8 minutes he finally talked to someone and convinced them that we had a big problem!!! In fact, it wasn't a standard residential power line - it was the high voltage (7200) line that feeds the hospital down the street from us.
The fire department showed up about 4 minutes after the initial call to 911. Since the power line was still live and arcing, they couldn't do much except keep spraying the truck down to keep it from exploding! That would have been a real problem - both of our personal vehicles were sitting next to it, AND we have a 100 pound propane tank next to the house!! By now, we were standing on the neighbor's front porch, watching the firemen spray the truck and impatiently waiting for the power company to show up and shut down the voltage. It took them over an hour to show up and shut that live line down - we were NOT impressed!!
Finally, the power company shut the power off and the fire department made sure the truck was OUT totally. Now we were left with a totaled company truck, burned up grass, a soggy lawn, no power to the house, and no phone!!! The landscape lights were shattered where the firemen had trampled them. The neighbor's yard was burned (the end of the power line was in his yard) and his front room smelled like smoke (the wind was blowing that way). Where the end of the line had curled up, there was a black shape burned in the yard that strongly resembled a heart, with an arrow through it.
The business of assessing the damages began.
First, we checked on the animals. Harley and Jacob (Dave's dog and the dog's cat) were scared, but fine. Smokey (Janis' cat) was scared, but okay. Misha (Janis' other cat) was no where to be found. We called her name repeatedly and looked everywhere - all over the basement, above the drop ceiling, behind the furniture. Nothing.
Next, the power company put the High Voltage Line back up. Then they fixed the power line to our house - the High Voltage Line had taken it down when it fell. Next, the phone company had to totally replace the phone line to our house. The High Voltage Line had hit it on the way down and totally vaporized it - it was in itty bitty burned up pieces in the yard. There was a solid black burn mark along the house where the power ran the phone line, and the phone box was totally blackened.
We then surveyed the inside of the house. The alarm system was destroyed. The smoke detector in the basement looked like someone took a flame thrower to it!!! The entire breaker box was bad - the main bus bars were burned up. Both computers were fried. The phone lines in the house were dead. 3 surge suppressors were blackened. Still no Misha!!!
Dave made a call to the insurance company to report the entire event and give them an initial damage list. He told them he intended to go ahead and get the breaker box and breakers replaced, so we could have power in the house. The adjuster at first did not want to replace the box and breakers because he didn't know if it needed to be done. It was only after Dave explained to them that they could end up replacing the house at a later date due to faulty breakers that he agreed.
Lunch was provided by a very thoughtful neighbor - she brought 2 big jars of homemade chicken vegetable soup over for us. Dave had a bologna & cheese sandwich.
Dave then decided to try and find Misha. He started moving boxes and stuff to try to find her. He finally found her behind some wood stacked up in a corner - squeezed up in a little tiny hole and keeping quiet. She was apparently too terrified to meow. After a lot of talking and attention, she finally got better.
Janis witnessed a very unusual thing that afternoon - about 8 Blue Birds gathered around the burned up truck - they were sitting all over it, flying around, and pecking at the ground around it. Soon, little finches joined them. Dave thinks it must have been the smell of the ozone and the worms drawn to the surface that attracted them.
Later in the day, it started to sleet, then snow. It snowed and sleeted all that night. Fortunately, we have a propane gas heater, so we had heat in the front room - we slept on the sofa that night to keep warm.
Next morning began the business of replacing the breaker box. Dave went and bought all the supplies, and his friends came over to help. That took all afternoon, but by about 6:30 that night - we had power!!
Another strange sight - with all the snow and sleet the night before - where the power line had been laying in the yard - Nothing - no snow, no sleet! Guess the ground was still too warm and the snow didn't stick.
Well, life has slowly been getting back to normal around here. We're still waiting on the insurance company to settle our claim - hopefully, it will be soon now! The animals have finally settled down, and we have both stopped jumping at every little noise during the night.
We did discover some damage from this event about a month later. The city only reads the water meter every other month - they came out in early March to read it and left us a note saying "Looks like you might have a water leak in your front yard." When Dave got home from work, he went out and opened the box for the water meter - full of water!! He started digging around the meter and found the leak - on our side of the meter, of course!!! The plastic pipe attached to the end of the meter was melted, and the clamp closest to the meter was almost completely burned away. Dave repaired the damage, and called the insurance company the next day! We were really afraid to get the water bill, but it turned out okay - it was only about $2.50 higher than normal.
By the way, did we mention the worst part of all this? February 2 is Dave's birthday - what a way to celebrate your 29th birthday, eh? Janis told him if he had wanted fireworks for his birthday, all he had to do was ask and she would gladly have spent the money to buy them!!!
What Dave learned from this experience:
What happened to Dave's Saturn? A couple of burned out dash lights, a stuck tachometer, and a backup light switch that only worked part of the time. Everything else worked great!
Part 2
After more than 5 months of lies and promises from the adjuster at "Great American Insurance", Dave contacted his good friend (who also happens to be his attorney) for advise. He suggested sending a registered letter to them with a deadline for settlement, which was done. Two weeks later we got a check, for half..... and a letter stating we had to file an amended claim for the rest, within 180 days of initial loss. This gave us just over 30 days to get 2 computers replaced during the peak of lightning season. But thanks to the fast, quality, work of Vaughn's Computer Solutions, we made it by the deadline.
Lies and promises to us and our insurance agent by the insurance adjuster:
BTW, We have a new insurance company now..... "Great American Insurance" canceled our policy. They had a valid reason though, the agent no longer represented them (I wonder why). We had planned to cancel it anyway, due to the untimely and unprofessional manner that our claim was handled.