Florida woman says her toilet exploded after a lightning strike

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/06/florida-woman-says-her-toilet.html

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Can’t be. Port Charlotte is not in the Devil’s Triangle.

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reminds me to google if it’s okay to shower during thunderstorm

but if it wasn’t, I suspect there would be a whole lot more bad stories about it

update: wow, okay never doing that again

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Maybe not then, but perhaps now?

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I guess this is one of those instances where lighting a match would not be advised.

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Makes sense. If I shattered the toilet with my monstrous unladylike dump, I’d probably make up some total lie about a lightning strike, too.

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That’s some spicy chili.

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Stinky situation.

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There will never be a time one can mention a septic tank and I won’t post this…

You think lightning causes damage - try some Dynamite!

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I don’t even want to know what the smoke from a septic tank fire smells like…

Florida, you never fail me…

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Whenever I want to relax and savor the day’s events, I strike up a Septic Tank - it smokes like no other - the first draw will make you gag and leave you flushed - but you’ll get used to it - and its strong shit too, so you don’t have to be concerned about freeloaders.
When you need to unload or drown your sorrows, incistern on Septic Tank!

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I’d be curious whether a methane/air reaction was responsible; or if it was just lightning phase changing enough water to do the trick.

Gas explosions are certainly a thing; but (unless the piping is both voluminous and horrible) there shouldn’t be all that much methane at play(especially because it doesn’t explode unless it’s at a relatively modest concentration in combination with oxygen); while a lightning bolt doing the “relative to this voltage all paths to ground are equally valid” thing could probably dump an alarming amount of energy into available water in short order.

(edit: a better summary of the mechanism of action I had in mind, as potentially occurred really fast in certain areas of the piping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor_explosion#BLEVEs_without_chemical_reactions )

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That’s a spicy meatball! /Jim Carrey

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Insufficient venting and/or grounding?

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Reboing?

Oh wait, never mind. This was a threatening aurora. :fireworks:

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You’re a dad aren’t you? That was so punny.

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I saw the headline and immediately came to the BBS for puns.

Thank you for giving me hope.

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As a kid growing up in the lightning capital of North America

We had a few strokes near our house. I was never allowed to use the phone or shower during a thunderstorm. The coolest hit was one at the corner of our paved driveway next to our house. It blew a 2 foot section of pavement off the corner of our driveway a few feet away and melted the sand underneath.

I’ve been to a few Metallica/Nirvana/STP concerts, but this was the only time my ears actually hurt.

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Lightning strikes a primitive bog?

It’s alive!

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