Lightning Damage is a Real Danger

Industries with sensitive electrical and electronic

equipment suffer great losses in actual dollars and

system continuity dueto lightning damage that destroys equipment, halts critical business processes, and shuts down entire operating platforms.

Lightning accounts for some $5 – 6 Billion in reported damage each year in the United States (an estimate from the National Lightning Safety Institute which is stated to be conservative due to lack of reported damages) of which$1.65 Billion in insurance claims were paid in 2011 according to the Insurance Information Institute. It is estimated that unreported damage greatly exceeds reported damages. Many in the wireless communication industry estimate receiving $6,000 in damage per year per cellular tower in the United States. Loss of cellular communications is usually just an inconvenience to customers, but when emergency communications is lost,it is a danger to public safety.

Lightning Damage

According to the Lightning Protection Institute, lightning strikes cause $45,000 in damage per occurrence at E911 centers. Worse yet is lightning often removes emergency management system’s communication and response capability and continuity by damaging essential services and communications such as 911 service, police-fire-ambulance dispatching, and isolating responders. To give an idea of how common this is, just look at 911 centers that were incapacitated during the summer of 2012: Henderson County, TN; Booneville, IN; Lawrence County, OH; Metropolis, IL; Chicksaw County, MS; Onondaga County, NY; Rockdale County, GA; Laurel County, KY; Rensselaer County, NY; Halifax County, VA; Lawrence County, OH; Warrick County, MO; and Crawford County, IL just to name a few. Significant damage and downtime typically accompany such lightning strikes; a recent example of how critical emergency management continuity is to its citizens is Woodward, OK in April 2012. Lightning damaged the signal tower which incapacitated the city’s warning sirens which failed to warn the city’s people of the tornado that tore through Woodward, killing five (5) and injuring 20; for emergency management, continuity is a matter of life and death.