My worst fear has always been lightning striking my house and it catching on fire.
I was always afraid I would end up stuck in the house and never get out.
I never expect lightning to hit the air conditioning unit. I knew it had struck somewhere near the house, but I didn’t think it had hit the air conditioner. I wanted to go outside and look but it was raining so hard, I thought it would break the windows when it hit. The lightning was coming often, and it illuminated the room, even though the curtains were closed. I went to the living room, and hid in the closet. It was there I realized how hot and stuffy it was in the house, and I could smell ozone inside. The lights were out, and the air conditioning unit wasn’t running. I needed to know what had happened. The storm was calming, and I was looking out the windows. There were no lights anywhere in the area, except for a few sparks coming from my air conditioning unit. I thought I was seeing fog, but what I was seeing was smoke coming off the AC unit. I had to call the power company, but they already knew we were without power. I then called the HVAC company, who had so many calls, they couldn’t answer. I had to wait until morning, when the sparks had subsided, but I could now see the big hole the lightning had blown in its side. I was going to need a new air conditioning unit.