Louisiana 3rd In The Nation For Lightning Damage

We were taught in science class that in the event of lightning you stay low to the ground. Well I can't think of a place that is lower in elevation that the state of Louisiana. Still we are among the leading states in the country when it comes to filing damage claims base on lightning strikes. Only the states of Georgia and Texas have more lightning damage claims that Louisiana does.

This past year State Farm Insurance paid out on over 1,400 lightning claims. The average claim for lightning damage was $4,600. If you're not good at math that means the "Good Neighbors" forked over about $6 million dollars in settlements.

Most of those involved losses related to surges and power surge related losses.

The words of Roszell Gadsen with State Farm. Gadsen's comments were reported by the Louisiana Radio Network.

It makes sense actually. In Louisiana almost everyday from April through August comes with at least a slight chance of a thunderstorm in the forecast. If you consider that more and more of us have high tech electronic gear in our homes in the form of televisions, computers, and gaming systems, it's no wonder the claims can be expensive.

A few dollars for a surge protector is a very small price for protection when it comes to a device that costs hundreds of dollars, if not thousands of dollars.

This is Lightning Safety Awareness Week and now's probably a good time to review some of the rules of the best way to avoid an incident between you and Mother Nature. You might want to discuss these with your kids too since many kids are at home by themselves on Summer afternoons.

If you’re outside during a thunderstorm, try to get indoors as soon as possible. If that option does not exist, the best thing to do seems to be to seek lower ground.

It's hard to get lower than below sea level as some parts of our state are but I think you know what Gadsen means. By the way lightning strikes are more likely to occur in Louisiana during the months of June, July, and August so we are in that window and if a thunderstorm approaches next to a window is not a good place to be.