Flooding and lightning slam Cape Cod

Off Main Street in Hyannis, several business owners on Ocean Street were fed up with the water washing into their buildings as vehicles drove by.

"If this was nighttime, we'd have to close our business," 19th Hole Tavern co-owner Dave Cronan said. "With cars continually going by, the whole building's flooded."

The lightning knocked out the fire department's computer system, 911 system and the town's alarm system, Kingsbury said. The fire department received emergency calls through the Barnstable County Sheriff's dispatch system, which routed the calls to firefighters' portable radios, he said.

Two homes and meanwhile one business, which was located on Route 130, were hit by lightning in Sandwich, nevertheless there were no fires, a Sandwich Fire Department dispatcher said. "It got so dark here, it was like 8 p.m.," the dispatcher said.

At Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis, a man was almost struck by lightning when a bolt hit the ground nearly where he was standing, according to a Hyannis Fire Department official. The man was speaking on a cellphone at that time.