What to Do Right After Lightning Strikes Near Your Naples Home | CoHarbor Electric

We took a call on a Saturday morning in July from a homeowner in Wilshire Lakes. Lightning had hit a tree in the backyard — she heard it, felt it through the floor, and the power went out simultaneously. By the time she called us, the power had come back on and she was standing in her kitchen wondering if it was safe to just… go about her day. The lights worked. The A/C kicked on. Everything seemed fine.

We told her to leave the main breaker off and wait for us.

When we got there, we found a surge had traveled through the pool equipment circuit and burned the control board on the variable-speed pump. The panel-level surge protector had done its job partially — it was depleted and needed replacement. And there was a scorched connection at the outdoor subpanel that, left alone, would have been a problem eventually. From the inside of the house, none of that was visible. Everything seemed fine because the lights worked, which is about the lowest possible bar for “electrical system is okay.”

This happens more than people expect in Naples. Collier County sits in one of the most active lightning corridors in the country. Storm season here isn’t a sometimes thing — it’s a reliable, recurring feature of living in Southwest Florida, and the combination of coastal exposure, older housing stock, and the sheer frequency of electrical activity means lightning-related damage calls are a regular part of what we do. Knowing what to do in the first hour after a strike — and what not to do — matters.

Step One: Don’t Assume It Missed You

The instinct most people have after a nearby lightning strike is to check whether the power is on. If it is, they relax. That’s the wrong metric.

A surge from a nearby strike can damage equipment, degrade wiring connections, and deplete or destroy surge protective devices without causing an immediate outage or tripping a breaker. Breakers protect against sustained overcurrent — they’re not designed to respond to a microsecond voltage spike. A surge can pass through a breaker without tripping it and still deliver enough energy to damage what’s downstream.

The lights being on means the circuits are energized. It doesn’t mean the wiring, the panel, or the equipment connected to those circuits is undamaged.

If you heard or felt a strike close to your home — close enough that the thunder and lightning were essentially simultaneous, or if you saw a flash at or near the property — treat it as a potential strike until someone with the right equipment has looked at the system.

Step Two: Turn Off the Main Breaker

Before you do anything else, before you start checking equipment or resetting devices, go to the main panel and switch off the main breaker.

This does two things. It stops current from flowing through circuits that may have damaged wiring or compromised connections — damaged insulation that’s still carrying current is a fire risk. And it gives you a clean starting point for the assessment that follows, rather than having the system energized while you’re poking around trying to figure out what got hit.

If the main panel itself looks visibly damaged — burn marks, a smell of melted plastic, breakers that have physically moved or appear fused — don’t open it. Call us and wait. A panel that took a direct surge hit needs to be assessed by a licensed electrician before it’s touched.

Step Three: Check for Immediate Safety Hazards

With the main breaker off, do a visual walk of the property looking for anything that needs immediate attention.

Outside first. If lightning struck a tree, a fence post, or the ground on your property, check the area for anything burning or smoldering. Lightning can ignite material that continues burning slowly — wood, mulch, dry vegetation. Exterior electrical equipment — meter base, service entrance, outdoor outlets, pool equipment pad — look for visible burn marks, melted covers, or damage to conduit and wiring.

At the panel. With the main off, open the panel door and look — don’t touch, just look — at the interior. Obvious scorching, a breaker that’s visibly damaged, wire insulation that’s melted or discolored. If you see any of that, close the panel and call before doing anything else.

Detached structures. If you have a detached garage, a pool house, or any structure served by a feeder from the main house, check those separately. Feeder runs between structures are pathways for surge energy, and equipment in detached buildings can take damage even when the main house is largely okay.

Inside the house. Smell for anything burning. Check outlets in rooms closest to where the strike occurred for any discoloration or burn marks around the cover plates. If you have a hardwired smoke detector system, confirm it’s functioning — a surge can affect the control panel for interconnected alarm systems.

Step Four: Make a List Before You Turn Anything Back On

Before you restore power, walk through the house and make a rough list of the major equipment that was energized at the time of the strike. HVAC systems, refrigerators, pool equipment, a home theater or AV system, a home automation controller, an EV charger, a generator auto-transfer switch. Anything with a control board is a candidate for surge damage.

This matters because some surge damage is immediate — the equipment stops working right away. Some is latent — the control board is damaged but still functions in a degraded way for days or weeks before failing. If you have a list of what was running when the strike happened, and one of those items stops working two weeks later, you have a starting point for the insurance claim and for the diagnostic conversation with the technician who looks at it.

Speaking of insurance — if the damage is significant, call your homeowners insurance company before authorizing repairs. Most policies cover lightning damage. Document what you find with photos before anything is replaced.

Step Five: Restore Power Selectively, Not All at Once

When you’re ready to restore power — either after a quick visual assessment finds nothing alarming, or after a licensed electrician has looked at the panel — do it selectively rather than just flipping the main back on.

Leave individual breakers off for circuits serving equipment you’re concerned about. Restore lighting and general circuits first and verify they’re working normally. Then restore individual equipment circuits one at a time, checking for any signs of trouble — burning smell, unusual sounds from equipment, breakers that trip immediately.

Pool equipment in particular: pool pump motors that took surge damage sometimes still run but run hot, which can accelerate motor failure and create a heat source inside the equipment enclosure. If the pool pump runs but sounds different than normal, or if the automation system is showing errors it wasn’t showing before the storm, those are indicators worth investigating before you write it off as fine.

What Needs a Licensed Electrician vs. What You Can Handle

Some of what follows a lightning event you can assess yourself — checking outdoor equipment visually, resetting GFCI outlets that tripped, confirming whether a specific circuit has power. Some of it needs a licensed electrician.

Call us for:

The panel — any assessment of the main panel or subpanels, any concern about the service entrance or meter base, any breaker that won’t stay reset or appears damaged. The panel is the one place where the risks of DIY assessment after a surge event are highest.

The surge protective device — if your home has a panel-level SPD, it needs to be tested or replaced after any significant nearby strike. A depleted SPD looks fine but provides no protection. Under NEC Article 285, these devices are rated for specific energy absorption limits, and a strike that exceeded that limit means the device has done its job and needs replacement.

Any wiring concern — damaged insulation, a circuit that behaves inconsistently, outlets that are warm or discolored. Wire damage inside walls isn’t something a visual inspection surfaces, and a circuit that’s compromised is a fire risk.

HVAC electrical — the electrical disconnect, the wiring to the compressor, and the control board connections are worth having checked after a significant event. Control board replacement on a modern communicating HVAC system is a real expense that’s worth catching on an insurance claim rather than paying out of pocket.

LCEC handles the service drop — the lines from the utility pole to your weatherhead are LCEC’s equipment. If you have concern about damage to those lines, or if the meter base appears to have been damaged, LCEC needs to be involved before power is restored through that service entrance. Call them directly for utility-side issues and let them clear the service before your electrician addresses the house-side equipment.

After the Assessment: What Gets Replaced

The typical scope of work after a significant lightning event in Naples looks something like this: surge protective device at the main panel, tested and replaced if depleted; any subpanel SPDs checked; damaged GFCI outlets replaced; pool equipment control board if affected; HVAC control board if affected; any wiring with compromised insulation replaced. The panel itself usually survives unless the strike was very close or very direct — but the panel should be inspected regardless.

What doesn’t get checked often enough: the grounding system. A strong surge event is worth having the grounding electrode system verified. NEC Article 250 sets the requirements for grounding and bonding in residential systems, and a compromised grounding conductor or electrode connection affects how the system handles future surge events. It’s not the first call we get after a storm, but it’s part of a thorough post-strike assessment.

Call Coharbor Electric After a Strike

If lightning hit near your Naples home — or if you’re just not sure and something feels off with the electrical system after a storm — don’t wait for something to fail before calling. The damage that matters most after a lightning event is usually the kind you can’t see from the living room.

Coharbor Electric serves Naples, Marco Island, Bonita Springs, Estero, and throughout Collier County. We’re licensed, insured, and we do post-storm electrical assessments regularly during hurricane season. If you had a strike nearby and you want someone to actually look at the system before you assume it’s fine, reach out and we’ll get out there.

For related reading, our piece on whole-home surge protection for Naples homes covers what panel-level devices can and can’t do — useful context if this event is making you think about your protection setup.