in Chatsworth, Grey Highlands, Southgate, West Grey
October 30, 2024
Photo by Pixabay
In the morning of Tuesday, October 29, lightning struck RuralNet's Markdale Tower, destroying the tower and much of the equipment connected to it. On Wednesday, October 30, RuralNet issued the following update:
At 11:16 am, and 23 seconds, yesterday Mother Nature decided to devastate the Markdale Tower. Lightning directly struck a radio 'horn' on the top mounting frame. From there it wanted to find ground, and it certainly did find it. The massive surge of energy destroyed every electronic device on the site. It melted every wire on the tower and to the tower. It disconnected itself from the electrical grid by blowing up the meter base and throwing the electrical meter some fair distance from the box. There was an 18" wide and deep hole in the ground where the energy went down the copper wire to the ground rod.
On the way to ground, it blew up our wooden shed. The door was removed and was laying on the ground in front of it. The board and baton siding disassembled itself. The electrical box where there was an outlet and light switch was completely black, and now round from the internal explosion. (It was square.) The roof was bent outwards and deformed. WOW. It is amazing how much raw energy the static from wind and water moving can generate.
The location of the strike in the image above is just a few meters from where it actually struck the tower. It is amazing how accurately they track each and every lightning strike. Site shows it had a current of 152,000 Amps. Looking at the damage, 152,000 Amps seems about right. A typical lightning bolt is just 30,000 Amps. Lightning The Hydro One crew were simply amazed at the level of destruction. They had "never seen a strike like it before". Well, I am glad we set a new record of some sort.
The tower is currently running on the batteries and a Milwaukee inverter/charger unit. Hydro will complete the electrical repairs tomorrow. The tower can run for 48 hours on just the backup batteries.
The Electrical Panel (By Hwy 10 Roadway) that will not buff out.
Fortunately we keep in stock supplies to rebuild a couple towers at a minimum. We even have an extra shed for unforeseen emergencies. The Ukrainian kids using it to wait for their school bus in the Beaver Valley would certainly understand. (And they will get a brand new replacement shed in 2-3 days.) By logging all device configurations, we can simply replace all the electronic gear and upload the settings as they were prior to the incident. With all hands on deck, we were able to restore full service in about eight hours. My role was solely delivering Harvey's at approximately 5:00 pm as the team needed some food. Sorry to the vehicle behind me as I ordered six meals for the guys.
Service Restored!
While the link shows 'reconnection' at around 5:30 pm, that was just the tower to tower links. It took until around 7:00 pm to get the links to the clients up and running again. A total time from destruction to fully restored of eight hours. Xplorenet was hard down here for about two days when just one fibre to a tower was severed. I was told over 400 customers were offline for the entire time. I trust RuralNet clients helped out their neighbours if they needed internet to work or study.
I am glad we were able to restore the network so quickly. The team we have is outstanding. To safely climb and work for hours on end at the 120 foot heights is impressive. Every RuralNet field technician is trained and equipped to work at these heights. Sometimes there are two or three techs up a tower at once, as was the case today.
We at RuralNet wish to again thank everyone for their continuing support of us, by choosing RuralNet as their internet provider. Please do not hesitate to text or email me if you are having any service related issues. We try to fix everything as soon as we know about it. Day or night.
Please Be Kind. Please Be Thoughtful. Giving a kind word or gesture costs nothing and can greatly improve someone's day. Take care and stay healthy.
Sincerely,
Team RuralNet
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