Sorry I am late to this. Glad all are ok. At least you are up and going (net-wise). How did the cats react?
Tan and Zeke seemed up affected. Zoey spent the following 18 hours hiding in the basement and then was pretty nervous for a couple more days.
I always feel better after getting zapped!
Some people act like Zoey.
Seriously tho, you are really lucky that the lightning strike found a path thru your electrical system. At 40 feet from a ground strike, you are well within the ground cover range that a strike can produce. Everything can go Hot! Being outside, this close, the step current can easily kill you in about the time frame of half the speed of light. Being inside, it has to chew thru some stuff first, but it knows how to eat.
If you do go with an Lightning Protection System (LPS), make sure all the components bear the UL logo. There will also be a UL file number with these and you can look it up online to get all the details.
There is also quite a bit to installing this type of system properly, so the
"person" installing this should be UL Certified! You can also get the installation UL Inspected and Certified.
Too much Snake Oil in this area with Lightning Rods, and many have paid the price with their lives from being duped with a grossly false sense of security.
Trust me, there is no way you can shoo away a Lightning Strike. It will do what it wants!
UL stands for Underwriters Laboratory.
