Lightning and surge damage calls for electricians

What a storm damage call usually involves

Few lightning calls involve a direct strike on the house. More often, a strike nearby, on a utility line or on the ground close to buried cables, sends a surge into the building through the power service, the cable or phone line, or the irrigation and well pump wiring. The result is patchy: a dead garage door opener, a furnace control board that will not start, a scorched receptacle, a tripped main and a television that no longer turns on.

Homeowners call an electrician because the power is partly out, a breaker will not reset or they smell something burning. Many are also thinking about insurance from the first minute. Handling these calls well means being safe, thorough and careful about what you put in writing.

The insurance picture

Lightning losses are a steady source of homeowners claims. According to the Insurance Information Institute, lightning-caused claims rose 11.6% to 61,986 in 2025 from 55,537 in 2024, and the value of those claims reached $1.65 billion^[1]. The national average cost per claim was $26,616^[1]. Claim counts are down from 85,020 in 2017, but the average cost per claim more than doubled over the same period, from $10,781 to $26,616^[1].

Fire is the risk behind the urgency. There were an estimated 344,600 residential building fires in the US in 2023, causing 2,890 deaths and about $11.27 billion in losses^[2]. A surge that damages wiring or a device can start a fire hours after the storm has passed.

Phone triage after a storm

Diagnosis from the service inward

1. 01

   Start at the service entrance

   Inspect the meter base, service conductors and grounding electrode connection. Damage on the utility side is the utility's job; note it and tell the customer who to call.

2. 02

   Open the panel

   Look for scorched bus bars, damaged breakers, melted insulation and loose or burned neutrals. Test the main and branch breakers.

3. 03

   Check grounding and bonding

   Confirm the grounding electrode system and bonding of water, gas and other systems. Poor grounding makes surges more damaging and is worth fixing whatever the claim outcome.

4. 04

   Trace affected circuits

   Test receptacles, GFCI and AFCI devices and hard-wired equipment on circuits the customer reported. Surges often leave some devices dead and others weakened.

5. 05

   Check low-voltage and connected equipment

   Garage door openers, HVAC control boards, irrigation controllers, doorbells, network equipment and smoke alarms are frequent victims. Note which you tested and which need other trades.

6. 06

   Make it safe before you leave

   Replace damaged devices that create a hazard, isolate circuits you cannot repair today and explain in writing what remains off and why.

Documentation for insurance claims

The customer's insurer decides the claim, not you. Your job is an accurate record of what you found and what you did. Good documentation helps honest claims move quickly and protects your license if a claim is ever questioned.

• Date and time of the visit, and the date the customer says the storm occurred.
• Photos of every damaged component before removal, with a scale reference, and photos of the panel and service entrance.
• A list of damaged equipment with make, model and serial number, and which items were tested by other trades.
• A causation statement in careful language, such as "damage consistent with an electrical surge", unless the evidence clearly shows a direct strike.
• Itemized invoice that separates storm-related repairs from upgrades the customer chose, such as surge protection or a panel replacement.
• Keep removed parts, labeled, until the customer or adjuster says they are no longer needed.

Never inflate a scope or describe pre-existing defects as storm damage. Adjusters see many surge claims, and a contractor known for accurate reports gets called back.

Surge protection follow-up

After a repair, many customers ask how to prevent the same thing next time. Explain surge protection as layers: a surge protective device at the service or panel to handle surges from the utility side, point-of-use protection for sensitive electronics, and protection on other conductors that enter the house, such as cable, phone and network lines. Recent editions of the National Electrical Code require surge protection on many new and replaced dwelling services, so check which edition your jurisdiction has adopted.

Be honest about limits. No device makes a home immune to a direct strike, and surge protection does not replace proper grounding and bonding. Offer the upgrade with a written quote, send it after the repair is finished and let the customer decide. Our guide to whole-home surge protection advice has wording for that conversation.

Working with the utility and other trades

Storm damage rarely stops at the electrical panel. A single surge can affect the HVAC control board, the garage door opener, the well pump, the irrigation controller and the internet equipment. Be clear about what you tested and what belongs to someone else. Give the customer a short written list of equipment to have checked by other trades, and keep a few trusted contacts for HVAC, appliance and low-voltage work you can refer.

Where damage is on the utility side, such as the service drop or the meter, tell the customer to call the utility and note the conversation on your report. Do not reconnect or repair equipment that belongs to the utility. If the customer's insurer sends an adjuster, offer to walk through your findings and photos, and stick to what you observed.

Measures to review after storm season

• Time from first call to arrival for burning-smell and tripped-main calls.
• Share of storm visits with a complete photo and documentation set.
• Return visits needed because a damaged device was missed on the first visit.
• Surge protection quotes sent after repairs, and how many customers accepted.
• Calls missed during storm peaks, by hour of the day.

Staffing the storm days

Storm calls arrive in clusters. BLS notes that electricians' schedules may include evenings and weekends and that overtime is common^[3]. Set a storm-day plan: who is on call, how the office ranks the board, and when routine work is moved. Most states require electricians to be licensed^[4], so check that anyone diagnosing or repairing storm damage holds the right license, and that apprentices are properly supervised. Demand for electrical work is growing; US electrical contractors employed 1,174,900 people in September 2026, up 4.5% on a year earlier^[5].

What to tell the customer before you leave

Storm visits end with a stressed customer and a lot of information. Give them a one-page summary in plain language: what was damaged, what you repaired, what is still off and why, which other trades should check their equipment, and what to send the insurer. Explain that some surge damage shows up days later, when a weakened device finally fails, and ask them to call if anything else stops working. Leave your report and photos by email the same day so the customer can start a claim while the details are fresh.

Example: a storm morning

Example (fictional): after an overnight thunderstorm, a five-electrician shop receives a run of calls before 8 a.m. The dispatcher sorts them by the triage table. One burning smell call gets the first truck; two homes with tripped mains that will not reset get the next. Single dead devices are booked for the afternoon and the next day. Each technician uses the same documentation checklist and photo set. Two weeks later, the office sends each customer a short note offering a surge protection quote, with no follow-up call unless the customer asks for one.