How little or how much assessing to a residential wiring system should be conducted after a hit?
I did one yesterday and found..

Fried TV, Computer, Microwave.
No ground rod.
Water meter not jumpered.

I installed a rod and jumpered the meter.
It had been a couple weeks since the hit and she said that everything else was operating OK.
I explained the megger test but informed her that if everything was not disconnected, the test would provide questionable results. Also, if everything was disconnected, and unsatisfactory, or marginal readings were observed it could be extremely difficult and costly to locate the problem.
She is going to think about it .

Anyone else have any ideas?

Sounds like you did fine Redsy. Here in the rural midwest these are frequent.

Did one a few weeks ago. A rural house, the lightening entered the residence through the CB radio mast, came down the antenna lead to a shelf in the kitchen where the radio equipment was located. It was a 12vdc radio powered by a 120vac/12vdc converter, both the radio and power supply were reduced to a burned lump of electronics.

The lightening entered the house power system through the plug strip that the power supply was using. Followed that circuit back to the main service entrance and then went to ground through the water well, destroying the well controller and submersible well motor in the process.

Total damage was;
All devices on the kitchen circuit replaced.
Kitchen and Well ckt. breakers replace.
Well controller and motor.

Somehow, none of the kitchen appliances were damaged....to my surprise.

Also they were very lucky not to have a major fire in the kitchen. There was a small fire that burned itself out quickly damaging only the wallpaper.

GJ

Note: the service was properly grounded with a water pipe bond and ground rod, yet the lightening chose to follow the electrical ckt. to ground through the pump motor.

GJ,
Was the antenna mast grounded? I often find that is the 'welcome mat' for such things.

Redsy, without going into details, I can just about write your exact scenario (matter of fact it is written up for class) and after installing proper ground rod and jumpering water meter, guy has not had any problems since.

gj— Interesting comments about the submersible-pump damage. Of course, different regions have different practices, but do you know if the damaged pump was in a plastic or metal casing? Do you know if that’s understood to make any difference?

I would do by best to physically inspect the wiring of the circuits the fried items were on.It may be a difficult thing to accomplish, but I have seen insulation badly melted on type NM inside of wall cavities after a strike.

would not a good meggin' do?

spark,

Iam considering megging.
I'm not sure she wants to pay the cost for what may result in more questions or more work. And still be inconclusive.

Well, here goes...

What about installing an AFCI on the circuit that had the damaged appliances.
If the insulation has been compromised, the resulting arc-fault shoul be a parallel type.
Correct?

sounds easier than x-ray vision, i get headaches from eyestrain......

Square D, in Data Bulletin 0760DB0201R06/02 titled: "The Truth About AFCIs", states:
Al

Bj- Don't know about the submersible pump casing.

Using a AFCI to "test" a circuit sounds flakey to me. I would trust a megger to find any insulation faults......I don't think that an AFCI can do that.

GJ

I've done it on older BX, it's a bandaid ...

slices, dices & makes julian fries too!