Here in Colorado when I build houses I always include lightning protection of the bid, whether or not folks take me up on it is another issue, but some do. Myself, personally, I have lightning rods on my house. I also have lightning / surge protectors on all 3 electric panels in the house, and surge outlets and the monster home theatre power centers on the home theatre and tv's. With all my protection I have not experienced lightning damage, however my neighbors with zero protection have had significant damage. Not too long ago a house about 1/2 mile away actually had a hole blown into their roof from a direct lightning strike, luckily it was raining hard so a fire never got a chance to get going.
While I have allot of surge protectors and UPS units on my gear thru the house, I am not so much worried about my electronic stuff getting fried, I just want to be able to tell the insurance adjuster with a straight face that I took appropriate precautions if I ever suffer a loss. As for the lightning rods, again they are made to protect the structure, I have them installed because I don't want any house I build or live in to have an attic fire from a lightning strike.
Below is the link to the folks I use for my Colorado lightning rod installs
www.mrlightning.com
