On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:34:01 -0800 (PST), "hr(bob) "
wrote:

On Mar 11, 9:48*pm, "O.B." wrote:
Our neighbor's house was recently hit by lightning. *All that we
suffered were blown GFCI's throughout our house. *After replacing the
GFCIs, all outlets are measuring 123 volts as normal except for one.
The outdoor outlet is measuring 97 volts and will not power anything.
Any clue what's wrong here?

You probably have a fried wire somewhere in either the hot or the
neutral side of the line feeding the outlet. First, disconnect both
the hot and neutral wires at the house end, then tie them together at
the outdoor outlet

Even though he thinks he has disconected both wires at the house end,
lots of things could go wrong doing that, like disconnecting the wrong
wires. He should first measure the voltage between the two wires
before tying them together. If the wires really are disconnected, the
voltage will be zero, even with an analog meter. At least it will be
a lot lower than 97.

and measure the resistance at the house end.
Should be less than 1 ohm if the wires are ok.