Blew a fuse box in El Paso because of a frozen ground rod

Went out to a house on the east side of El Paso last Wednesday, old neighborhood with buried lines everywhere. Customer said their internet kept dropping every time the wind picked up, so I figured it was a loose connector. Turns out the ground rod was half pulled out of the dirt from years of frost heave, and some critter had chewed through the bonding wire. I tried to re-ground it with a new clamp, but the rod was so corroded it just snapped off under the hammer. Spent two hours digging a new hole, ran a fresh copper wire, and still had to drive back to the shop for an adapter because the old panel used a different lug size. The homeowner kept asking if I could just tape it together, which was not happening. Has anyone else dealt with ground rods that are basically rusted dust inside the clamp? How do you even test those properly without pulling the whole damn thing out?

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angela_morgan18d ago

Testing those is a nightmare, I always just plan on replacing the rod from the start.