Lightning damages campers
Staff writer
Lake supervisor Isaac Hett’s house and office were shaken by a shockwave from a Sunday morning lightning strike on a camper at the county lake.
The lightning strike happened at 8 a.m., he said.
It blew out a Newton family’s power cord port, knocked their camper’s breaker panel to the floor, and briefly caused a lot of smoke, Hett said.
The surge fried the electronic motherboard in the camper, he said.
“He went to leave today, so he raised his jack and autoleveled it,” Hett said. “Everything kept saying ‘malfunction.’ He’s got a lot of problems he has to deal with.”
The strike also blew breakers in a Burns family’s camper, but owners were able to reset them, and power turned back on, Hett said.
“Their surge protectors worked as they are supposed to and prevented damage,” he said.
Firefighters weren’t called, but Hett had all power pedestals in the campground checked.
This weekend’s Bluegrass at the Lake festival ordinarily brings the highest number of campers to the lake.
Hett said it wouldn’t be known whether other campers were damaged until owners return for the weekend.
“When it happened, I thought ‘that must have been close,’ and then all the power went off and came back on, but our computer would not come back on,” Hett said.
The computer was sent to Great Plains Computers for evaluation.
“Hopefully it was something minor, but I have a feeling it’s not,” Hett said. “All that stuff can be replaced thankfully.”