The external IT connections from our Wathipitiwala factory has been down for two days now. Apparently a lightning strike has knocked out an important link in the local area telephone line infrastructure. We do have two external telephone lines working but no international dialling facility. So no emails other than within the factory itself, no internet access and no IP phone connections. Yesterday we had to get some critical files sent to my home email account and I downloaded them and brought them in with me on my laptop this morning. Luckily the factory is about to closedown for 4 days otherwise the impact would have been severe (and will be severe if the lines are not operational by Tuesday next week). Our own equipment is fine as we tend to switch off the router to the outside world once the lightning starts, just as a precaution!
Lightning is a common problem in the Nittambuwa area (About 40Km from Colombo on the Colombo-Kandy road), particularly at this time of year. We have thunder and lightning storms most days, usually starting around mid afternoon and often lasting well into the evening. In general since I have been in Sri Lanak I have witnessed thunder and lighning the like of which I have never seen before. You can have a storm where both sheet & forked lightning occurs every few seconds for hours at a time. Usually torrential rain also accompanies the storms but sometimes there isn't a drop of rain.
Tonight's journey home was in a real whopper of a thunderstorm. Saw three massive forks of lightening that made me blink they were that bright and by the fact the the thunder was instantaneous I guess they must have hit the ground within a mile of me. Only trouble was it absolutely threw it down with rain. 2.5 hours to travel 45Km. That must work out at an average about 12 miles an hour ... Still at least my home internet access was up and running when I got back tothe apartment.