re: Lightning hit one of my trees last week...

The old family place on the Tx/La line a mile from the north end of Toledo Bend is thick with pines of all ages and sizes. In the 18+ years I lived there many trees got hit (luckily no damage to electrical ever, the closest thing was lightning traveling down the phone line in through the kitchen window of the old wood frame house my grandparents lived in and mom grew up in. That set the sink window curtains on fire that grandma just happened to be doing dishes in the sink at the time.)

ALL the struck pines survived but I did lose several very old oaks (ancestors used to hang metal objects on the oaks, some superstitious stuff about “luck”). Several of the pines have big nasty scars like your pictures so maybe you can get lucky?