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Ed Frederick · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:43 am Post subject: House Wiring by a Tornado

In February 2007, a tornado (65 mile path, 21 fatalities) ripped through central Florida, USA. One mile from my house, a couple about 60 years of age, had much of their (one year old) ranch interior walls destroyed with the exterior walls and roof heavy damaged but basically in tact. No basement, so all wiring is fed from the circuit breaker box in the interior garage to the rooms via the attic. They claim that once the funnel ripped through their house at 3:16 in the morning, while they were sleeping, that all of their room lights came on and all ceiling fans that were not destroyed were running. These folks are genuine, so their veracity is not in question.
I have tried to theorize, unsuccessfully, a scenario of how that is possible. Can you come up with any solution, even one that is improbable but possible?

b · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:50 am Post subject:

did the switches work afterwards? The high voltage spike could be responsible for fusing the switches thus being in a permanent on state. Need more detail to make educated guess for you.

Ed Frederick · Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 10:40 am Post subject:

Finally was able to contact the couple. All the switches in the rooms not destroyed were operational after the tornado.