It seems Dr. Gomes is making what seems to be a resonable assumption the lightning somehow coupled onto the AC line (the hot), from which it arced to the ground (including grounded neutral) at the outlets. I believe this is somewhat incorrect. From his description of the lightning strike hitting the grounded building structure, I would expect the well-grounded structure, the earth around it, and the ground rods and ground/neutral wiring attached at the service panel, bounced quite high relative to the AC line hot conductor which would not have been carrying the same level of lightning currents. As a result, there was a flashover at the outlets due to the ground rising as opposed to the AC line rising. Ground potential rise is quite large with even "small" 2000 amp transients. I would expect an enormous ground potential rise with a direct strike, even to such a well grounded structure. The line conductors are referenced to the ground(neutral) window present at the utility transformer ground rod(if present) and neutral wire and not the ground window of the building structure/AC panel/local ground rods.
All IMO of course.
