Rise of gadgets doubles costs of lightning damage

The cost of insurance claims for lightning strikes nearly doubled between 2004 and 2011, even as the actual number of claims shrank dramatically, and an industry trade group says fancy new TVs and videogame consoles are to blame. The Insurance Information Institute, in a study released on Thursday, found insured losses related to lightning strikes reached nearly $1 billion in 2011. That was actually down from a year earlier, and the number of total claims also fell.