In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips Chuck Harris wrote:
The lightning hit the chimney cap, went down the brickwork of the

All bets are off in a direct strike. Common grounding only
reduces the damage from a nearby strike.

to any other devices. However, the induced surge in the
security wire/telephone wires that pass through the house
blew two modems and a phone answering machine. But not a
cordless phone, or any other telephones. One modem carried

I still doubt this was induced _unless_ 1) Phone was
run parallel to the floodlight circuit for some distance
and 2) Phone and power were on the same groundstake.

Most likely, phone was on it's own groundstake, so anything
bonded to power ground would get fried by the ground
differential between power and ground.

Our power is buried, and the transformer is one of those
steel enclosed boxes about 70 feet from the house.

Good!

One thing I have never been able to determine is whether
we would be safer with a lightning rod system, or without.

Hard to say. A lightening rod system could be dangerous
if the insulation was insufficiently heat-resistant.

-- Robert