Lightning hits Cedar Rapids home for second time, displaces couple

CEDAR RAPIDS – Lightning struck a Cedar Rapids house for the second time in three years early Friday morning, forcing a couple to find another place to stay.

Claudell Mims, 60, and his wife, Anna Carpenter-Mims, 59, were asleep around 2:30 a.m. when the lightning bolt hit the front corner of their house at 505 Rockhurst Dr. SW. It struck by a front bedroom where their 17-year-old grandson was sleeping.

“It sounded like a bomb went off,” Carpenter-Mims said.

All three scrambled to the door as smoke alarms sounded. Carpenter-Mims called 911, and her husband worried about their two cats inside.

Firefighters discovered melted soffit on the front of the one-story residence and later found a hot spot in a bedroom wall. The current traveled across the top of the wall and down to the floor, where it charred an electrical outlet. A fuse box in the basement was also darkened.

Crews removed some drywall and insulation from the front bedroom to make sure the fire had not spread, he said.

Fire Department spokesman Greg Buelow said the grandson saw sparks and smoke coming from the top of a front window before he got outside. The cats reappeared later Friday morning and were OK.

Carpenter-Mims said they often are on vacation this time of year, but they were glad they weren't this time.

“If we weren't home, our house probably would have burned down,” Carpenter-Mims said. “I'm just thankful to be alive.”

Utility workers disconnected the electricity and gas to the home, forcing the couple to stay in a hotel. The Red Cross provided assistance for one night. Mims was on the phone with his insurance company Friday morning and said the adjuster wouldn't be arriving until Monday.

The couple said their garage was struck by lightning in 2009, causing minor damage. This was worse.

“If it happens again, I think I'll be moving,” Carpenter-Mims said.