– You lie a little above your bed. You don’t quite understand what has happened. On Sunday morning, Mads Ramstad and his wife Anine Kongshavn woke up to a loud bang. They left the bedroom and saw pieces of glass in the hallway. – We wondered if it was a bomb. Then we smelled the smoke and then called the emergency services. At 06.40 that morning, the police sent out a message to the press that they were responding to reports of lightning strikes in several houses in the north of Haugesund. One house in particular had suffered extensive damage. Mads and Anine’s. – It was quite intense to see the living room full of shards of glass. Ruined and broken, says Ramstad. The pane in the door that leads into the living room is broken. Everything electrical in the house is destroyed. Here the plug in the living room has been blown out of the wall. On the opposite wall, several meters from where the lightning struck, the wallpaper has suffered visible damage. There is visible damage inside the wall. Ramstad is grateful that it didn’t start a fire. The top of the pipe is several meters from the house, down on a patch of grass next to a footpath. They slept next to each other. – And we came out of it unscathed. We are very happy that it did not catch fire, he says. Three days later, a lightweight wall has been erected in the living room to hold the roof up. It smells of burning, the plug has blown out of the wall, a stove window is broken. And the pipe has partially collapsed. They plan to sit here in the window and watch beautiful sunsets or the storms that often hit the west coast. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news On the way down to the cellar, you have to try not to trust the glass pieces. The new inspection hatch in the pipe was blown across the room and hit the fridge, which still has obvious dents. The inspection hatch in the pipe was blown out and hit the fridge and flew further into the basement. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news Because it was not “normal” lightning that struck the house. An unusual lightning strike State meteorologist Kristian Gislefoss has studied the lightning strike that hit the residential area in Haugesund. State meteorologist Kristian Gislefoss. Photo: Viktoria Hellem-Hansen Current strength is measured in amperes. For example, a toaster uses 30 amperes. The starter motor of a car uses up to 160 amperes. According to Gislefoss, a lightning strike usually has 10,000 amperes. The lightning that struck Ramstad’s house had 146,000 amperes. – It is not often that we see such powerful lightning strikes, says the state meteorologist. – Why did they become so strong? – It is difficult to say. Usually the most powerful lightning travels from cloud to cloud, not the ones that go down to the ground. So this was an exception. Good neighbors The insurance company and assessment agency are in the process of getting an overview of the damage. It will be a long time before the couple can move home again. In the meantime, it’s nice to feel good neighborliness. – It means an incredible amount that we have been given accommodation with a neighbour. Others offer breakfast, and we have coffee pots delivered to the door. It’s things like this that mean a lot, says Mads Ramstad. Anine Kongshavn and Mads Ramstad are grateful for good neighborliness after the lightning strike. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news Published 28.08.2024, at 16.24
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The lightning that struck the house was 15 times stronger than normal – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
