Lightning Strikes WorkersCompensation.com Offices, Some Services Disrupted

Sarasota, FL (CompNewsNetwork) - Living up to its reputation as the lightning capital of the world, a southwest Florida storm provided plenty of fireworks for the staff at WorkersCompensation.com Monday afternoon. The Sarasota offices appear to have taken a direct lightning strike that has caused the disruption of some services within the company.

A large oak tree at the northeast corner of the office building was severly damaged, with much of it left resting against the building. The tree was located next to a telephone junction box, and staffers suspect that this wiring was also struck, transmitting surges into the building. No employees were injured, although one did report being shocked by her laptop keyboard. Company President Robert Wilson noted that "the phone system lit up like a Christmas tree, with alarms going off throughout the building. I thought the phone system was gone". Although phone service has been restored, several computers appear to have been lost, and as of Tuesday morning the offices are without internet access.

Several services have been rescheduled due to the strike. The CompNewsNetwork Video Report, normally released Tuesday, has been tentatively rescheduled for Wednesday morning. Additionally, a CompTalk Radio program, scheduled for Tuesday production and release Thursday, has been postponed. The companys servers are kept in Network Operation Centers in California and Minnesota, and the website itself was not affected.

Jim Malachowski, VP of Operations for the company, said that contingency plans are in place for this sort of event. "We will be working Tuesday to provision new equipment and get everyone up and running as quickly as possible", he said. "We'll be back to normal by the end of the day."