Lightning hit a big Sweet Gum tree about 20 feet from the house. The lightning then traveled into the ground and dug a foot wide trench through the flower bed, exploding plants from the ground as it traveled, blew out the pond pump, exploded the electric cord attached to the pump, melted the plug prongs, fried the outlet along with every other outlet on that side of the garage, fried the garage door opener on that side, as well as taking out the phones and the satellite box. I'm grateful it didn't burn down the garage! Have a call into an electician to come out and assess the damge and give me an estimate. No point in replacing the pond pump until the outlets are fixed. Hopefully with all the rain, the water will stay oxygenated enough that the fish will be OK. The tree lost a 20' strip of bark but should be able to conpensate since it wasn't girdled. What a mess! Linda