Your system struck by lightning? What did you learn?

What struck me as odd is in neither case did a circuit breaker blow; and in none of the burnt out equipment did the fuses blow. Maybe someone w/ more expertise than I have can explain why not?

Speed, and current. You can fry solid state equipment with microamps. Just have to have the high voltage there for a microsecond, and poof.

The fuses and circuit breakers never have time to respond.

Fuses don't respond to voltage. 

To give you an idea, I used to work in a place that assembled solid state audio gear, most of it op amp based, and a certain manufacturer's parts, perhaps Fairchild?  (1980's)  was super susceptible to static during assembly.  The little zap that a human could apply, sometimes unnoticeable, was not enough to harm the technician, anymore than say rubbing your shoes across carpet and zapping an unsuspecting family member.

The fuses however don't go until there's enough current to melt the metal inside them.

@jdane 

Your situation reminds me of lightning strike incedents I had. 

1. My Levinson no.39 CDP was damaged while connected to a satellite decoder by SPdif coax cable, to play the digital music channel stations. Very expensive repair required upgrade to a no.390S.

2. My 'extra view" decoder connected to main decoder for' heart-beat' by coax, was blown, though not the main decoder. But Levinson no.36 DAC connected to DVD player by RCA cables for sound and RGB cable for picture was damaged, though not the TV conneted by HDMI Cable to the decoder and neither the DVD player!

3. My 'extra view' decoder blown again connected by coax cable to LNB on satellite dish (one coax goes to satellite dish and one goes to the main decoder for 'heart-beat' transmission). This time the LNB on the satellite dish got blown, the decoder digital HDMI Cable output got blown, the TV HDMI Cable input no. 1 got blown, the BluRay player conncted by HDMI Cable cable to TV blown. 

All this to me clearly indicates, that by very close lightning strikes, the strong magnetic field created, lifts the ground in the cable shielding for split seconds by so much voltage, that practically all equipment connected by coaxial as well as HDMI Cable will be affected and at least partially damaged. 
The connected BluRay player is a total 60-70 meters! away from the damaged satellite dish LNB, and the lifted ground connection still destroyed the HDMI Cable connected side of the player. 
Though it now still can play CDs via optical TOSLINK feeding into my Levison DAC! 

I'm not sure at all, if I had disconnected the decoder power supply, which is a 'wall-wart' 12 Volt power supply, connected to the 220 Volt house supply, would have prevented these recuring disasters.?!? 😕😭🙄
The lightning strike will tell, as now I disconnect the power to the decoder, when ever we have thunderstorms in the offing. 

None of these issues so far ever have been caused by the power mains 220Volt supply, as there seems a pretty go lightning protection provided by the municipal power supply.
This, during lighting, often causes intermediate power drips followed by pretty fast power resets. 
Sorry for the long winded story 🙏
Michélle 🇿🇦 

Lightning hit gutter and roof. Big flash and a bang. Smelled burning. Called fire dept. Lost $2600 refrigerator, modem and router, coffee maker, clock radio, a few LED bulbs and 2 breakers. A fuse blew in phono preamp. No other damage. No whole-house surge protectors. 

After losing a couple of satellite receivers in a row after mere wind storms,
I definitely recommend that all outdoor antennas be surge protected. 
Satellite receivers can blow from static discharge of air blowing across reflector.

These devices are hard to guard properly.  You need a surge/grounding block on the outside, plus a ground isolator on the inside, which has to have power, since you also block DC. The external house ground often causes ground loops internally, which is why I think installers don't bother.