turning my system on during lightning storms

My house took a bad lightning hit on 7/5/06- I'll never forget it. Totally destroyed the hot tub. It damaged a lot of electrical gear in the house too. I had surge protectors on my gear- Stereo, TV, Home theatre, and PC but everything with a three prong plug was damaged. The TV's and equipment that had two prong plugs were fine. The new hot tub has it's own ground rod now. btw- the large oak tree next to the house that provided the path in for the lightning (I was on the back porch and saw the lightning hit) was removed and we have had no more issues.

I have Monster Power Surge Protectors on both the HT system and Stereo system. So they apparently do not protect the earth ground. But Monster Power made good on the damages- no fuss. Other items, such as PC with 3 prong plug took a hit with basic surge protection and our electric blanket (3 prong) but the TV's were ok- two prong plugs.