No offense is meant, but be cautious about statements on grounding-electrode quality based on anecdotal opinion. Lighting damage is partially a statistical issue. Sometimes close-in hits cannot be defended with any amount of protection.
Does the building have an NFPA-780 system in place? What kind of surge protection is installed at the building electric-service entrance and telephone-cable entrance? Is the AC-power system, telephone-entrance protector, metal piping, lightning protection and foundation steel interconnected with low-reactance conductors? Bonding to limit {fast-transient} potential difference between these components/systems within and external to the building is a crucial part of efforts to resolve the problem.
If this is starting to cost the municipality significant money, a reputable lightning-protection engineering firm may need to make recommendations on acceptable protection practices based on national-consensus standards and their experience in the geographic region. There are likely no quick or cheap solutions.
A dated but respected general guide on surge fundamentals is
www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip94.pdf and reams of other non-vendor-based data
www.eeel.nist.gov/817/817g/spd-anthology/ www.jsc.mil/jsce3/emcslsa/stdlib/docs/Handbooks/Mil-HDBK-419A-V-1&2.pdf www.e-publishing.af.mil/pubfiles/af/32/afi32-1065/afi32-1065.pdf ]http://www.armymars.net/ArmyMARS/Safety/Resources/grounding.pdf] [This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 07-02-2004).]
