Remnants of Hurricane Gustav hit the Michiana area Thursday.

And one man had a close encounter that took him off the job and landed him in the hospital.

Storms rolled through the Michiana area early Thursday morning as construction crews began their day in the Granger subdivision of Saddle Brook.

Around 7:30 a lightning bolt struck a home next door to where the men were working, but it was one of them who felt the blast.

"Somehow the lightning got to the position he was working in and knocked him out and knocked him down and he was stuck up in the attic," said John Vance, Fire Chief of the Harris Township Fire Department.

Fire crews quickly arrived to the scene and found Bill Hobbs in the attic where he'd been working. Bringing him down in the pouring rain was no easy task.

"We were able to cut a hole," said Vance. "We packaged him up into a stokes basket/stretcher basket and we lowered him down with rope systems."

The bolt struck the home located on Picket Ridge Court, blowing out chunks of dirt and landscaping, cracking the siding, then traveling through wires to the construction site next door - a home familiar with elements of fire.

Back in May, a malfunctioning fireplace destroyed the home, now currently in its rebuilding stage. As for Hobbs, he was taken to Memorial Hospital for observation.

Neighbors not wanting to go on camera say the strike had lots of fire and sounded like a bomb explosion

"Looking at the power of the lighting strike next door it seems like we had some pretty powerful strikes so who knows what happened," said one neighbor.

"All indication from our assessment on the scene from our paramedics looks like he is going to be in good shape but he needed to go to the hospital to get checked out by the doctors," said Vance.