No phones, no internet as lightning strikes!

Just as the holiday weekend begins

This article was published on Aug. 2, 2020.

A great big bolt of lightning came cracking down on the main campus of the Sorrento Centre on the Friday evening of the holiday weekend (on Aug. 2020) . The flash was bright, the bang loud, and the incredible power of the lightning has caused significant damage to our IT systems.

Our telephone and internet systems were both down – some components appear to have been almost literally fried in the lightning strike. While our IT consultant on campus on Saturday to assess the situation, we urgently need technicians from our phone company and our internet service provider to replace some switches damaged in the lightning strike. 

Here is the good news:

• No one was hurt in the dramatic Friday evening incident. 
• We have power throughout our campus. 
• We are continuing to welcome guests for our summer programming.
• We are continuing to welcome private stays for RV and tenting. 

But the bad news is that when there is such a catastrophic hit to our IT systems on the Friday evening of a holiday weekend, there is not an abundance of technicians available to replace burned-out components.

We hope to have phone and internet restored in the next few days. 

We love Mother Nature… and are in awe of the incredible power of lightning!

The pix shows lightning above our main campus. One tree next to our iconic administration building, Spes Bona,  took the main hit… the lightning passed down the trunk of the tree and literally tore the bark off the sides. Then, the lightning crossed into nearby power outlets, and moved into our IT systems.