NORTH RIVER - Her neighbours knew it, but it wasn't until Wednesday night that Patricia Sowinski learned her house had been struck by lightning.
"I had partial power, so I didn't think anything of it," said Sowinski, while standing outside her home on Ruth Drive.
"The storm had woken me up (Tuesday night), but I didn't know I had been hit."
Sowinski learned through her neighbours that lightning struck the house she's been living in for more than two decades.
"I've heard that a neighbor said they saw the house get struck. We don't know where it entered, but we know where it came out."
There's one small spot on the side of Sowinski's house where the siding has been blown out.
"A piece of it landed in the neighbour's driveway across the road," she said.
Sowinski's house was one of two North River homes hit by lightning overnight Tuesday. A residence owned by Bibs Gogan on Highway 311 also felt Mother Nature's wrath.
After learning her house was struck by lightning, Sowinski called the North River Fire Brigade, who responded to make sure there were no hot spots inside.
"They came with their heat sensor to look for hot spots, but the only part was around the water line," she said.
Merrill Miller, an electrician and plumber, was at Sowinski's house on Thursday to try to get the woman's water back up and running.
"It blew out an electronic control somewhere and it went into the well," he said, adding the lightning strike either ruptured wires or burned out the sub pump completely.
"It'll probably be another day she's without water."
The only other damage the lightning strike caused was to Sowinski's phone line.
"There's no way I had ever thought my house would be struck by lightning," she said.
rtetanish@trurodaily.com
