TOILET EXPLODES DURING FLORIDA THUNDERSTORM

Sometimes, the weather stinks.

A South Florida homeowner suffered a rare weather-related mishap last Sunday. Scattered afternoon thunderstorms had bubbled up near the Port Charlotte home, but nothing seemed too out of the ordinary. Then came a flash of light and a deafening crack, and a toilet lay in ruin.

“We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into,” said Jordan Hagadorn, who owns A-1 Affordable Plumbing, the company that responded to the wrecked restroom in the Gulf Cove neighborhood.

Hagadorn said lightning struck the yard outside the Gulf Cove home, achieving “perfect ignition inside the sewer.”

“It must have exploded the methane inside,” Hagadorn said. “The homeowner was home at the time. There was a loud bang when the lightning struck.”

The charge traveled through the home, damaging electrical outlets and destroying wiring. The bathroom blast was enough to shatter the toilet and even take out windows. There even was some burning reported. Smoke was seen outside originating from the septic tank. The storm briefly dumped heavy rain, which extinguished the flames.

“It’s almost like winning the lottery,” said Hagadorn, regarding the odds of such an occurrence.

“Me personally? I’ve never heard of that happening,” said Andrew McKauthan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in the Tampa Bay area.

Porcelain pelted the walls, even denting and scratching the drywall.

“Thirty percent of the pipes in the home need to be replaced,” Hagadorn said. “The lightning blasted a hole in the ground. There’s piping on the roof.”

The photos he posted to Facebook show PVC piping split and splintered.

“I honestly thought the call was a friend messing with me until I showed up,” said Hagadorn, who was grateful that no one was injured. — The Washington Post