atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Outside Plant OSP Construction Here's some lightning damage for you.

When I was in station repair they sent out to visit an old boomer lineman" just sit for ahile and let him tell you about the old days". Well he showed me all the pictures of the boomers all standing on x-arms and so on, well in the corner of the living room was what looked like a glass xmas tre, turned out it was a groud rod hit by ighting in sandy soil; the sand had crsytalized into glass looked just like a clear glass x-mas tree.

I like the "Lightning Speed Ready" in the 3rd photo....guess they weren't. :rolleyes:

Ha, ha, Jim. No, it is type G cross connect wire, 22 gauge, double jacket, white/violet. You already knew that!

It would be interesting to know if there were a bonding or grounding issue for that section of cable or ped.

...wow. I always try to stay indoors during a T-storm, but those photos reinforce the reasons why.

Joe

It wasn't actually lightning that hit the cable to directly cause this. It hit a newly-erected pole and started a sequence of events.

The lightning took down a 7,200 volt power line which crossed with an aerial telephone cable. I'm guessing that the support strand heated up enough to melt into the cable, causing the resulting failure. This cable count appears to have run back into the cross connect box in the 401-500 pair count of the distribution side.

What is even more interesting is how the damage carried over through the cross connects to the feeder cable count.

I sure hope no one was injured (or worse). Sure the cabling and other equipment can be fixed/replaced, but people not so much.

We are in the lightning captitol of the US here in North/West FL. I have seen all kinds of lightning damaged plant, but when I saw those pics and based on the series of events you described I suspected it was caused by the power and not the actual lightning itself. Even if the cable section is bonded properly and meets spec. If a power company neutral goes open or a hot leg gets crossed it will throw higher voltages on our sheild than we can withstand causing everything to melt down. I have seen it happen a few times, that's why it is so important to test the shield for high voltage before disconnecting. In this case it happened all at once and it was obivious, but sometimes it is more gradual in nature. We could be acting as part of the power company's nuetral if they have an undersized neutral or a high joint or open nuetral. Sometimes these events happen over time and are not as obvious. This can be deadly if you don't do you homework.