Lightning Blasts Xikar Headquarters

David Savona
Posted: June 16, 2010

A nasty storm that rolled through middle America over the weekend blasted Xikar Inc. out of operation. A bolt of lightning that hit in the middle of the night on Sunday fried the Xikar corporate offices in Kansas City, Missouri, putting the cigar accessory and cigar company out of operation on Monday.

"The lightning surge traveled through the Ethernet cables and fried most of the network," said Xikar president Kurt Van Keppel in an email. The company's Ethernet switches, firewalls and both Internet connections were taken out, and Xikar lost its phone service and a half dozen computers.

"We are back up today, running on a patch system," said Van Keppel.

No one at Xikar was injured.

The storm flooded the area, knocking out power to around 25,000 customers, according to press reports.

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