We’ve seen the destruction of 11 homes in The Villages in the past year from lightning.
With the density of single homes and villas, in The Villages, there is nearly no space that we might wish the lightning to strike, particularly when lightning seeks high points to equalize the storm created imbalance in electric charge.
If we wish to protect our residents with lightning rods, how many, or better, how dense should they be? Should we all hope that our next-door neighbor will shell out the $2,000 with the expectation that his lightning rod will protect me also? What about every fourth house/villa? How would that work? A scaled reduction in payment with some expected lessening of protection?
If we consider collective protection, could there be a sufficiently tall tower within neighborhoods to protect all? In whose yard should it be constructed?
Perhaps a community lightning protection should take advantage of our proximity to golf courses. Could there be built along the golf course cart paths, lightning rod towers sufficiently tall to protect all of our neighborhoods?
I therefore propose that The Villages, with support from our community of lightning rod installers, conduct a study of the feasibility of utilizing our golf course properties to provide lightning strike protection for our community.
Leslie Allen is a resident of the Amberjack Villas.