| Author | Message | ||
     Willmrx |
Really, what are the odds? https://kste.iheart.com/content/2019-06-10-florida -motorcyclist-dies-after-getting-struck-by-lightni ng/ | ||
| Ourdee |
One in thirteen thousand. | ||
| Etennuly |
My condolences to the riders family. I often wondered about that. When I rode a lot I was frequently riding in rain storms. Many of those were at altitude, in open areas, where I was the highest point around. I watched an aluminum top 24 foot box truck get struck and quit running as we were taking it to my shop. It fired right back up and showed no ill effects. My assistant who was driving it had all of his hairs standing up for a while. I never knew if that was from the electric charge or fear though. | ||
| 86129squids |
He wasn't riding fast enough. No- seriously, RIP, fellow rider. I remember when I was a kid out riding my bicycle with my best buddy, out in a field we'd turned into a BMX/motocross/flattrack field. Saw a storm coming, kept riding... we stopped. I looked over at my buddy, his hair was standing on end... I realized we were the tallest things on the field, AND on our bicycles!!!   I told him to hit the dirt, did the same... kinda crawled towards the road, which was lower, jumped on our bikes and hauled aiss home, scared shitless. Fun times! | ||
| Fast1075 |
Lightning is no laughing matter. I have lived in Florida all my life, and learned respect for lightning at a very early age. Quite a few people get killed by lightning here. Usually it is golfers, or fishermen. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Golfers for sure. Nothing like holding a lightning rod in your hands. Fishermen I can see too, being the tallest thing on a body of water. (Message edited by fresnobuell on June 11, 2019) | ||
| Gmc310 |
crazy story, you never know when your time is up. | ||
| Ratbuell |
And that's the key. I've had a few bad wrecks (car and bike) in my day. Flipped a car at 120+, walked away without a scratch. Wrecked a bike, coded multiple times on the chopper and on the table...made it through. When your number's up...it's up. When it's not...it's not. Make the best of every single day. | ||
| Ourdee |
I've lost hearing do to lightning and have felt the electricity from it striking nearby more than once. It gets spooky then. I've been blessed to not have been the primary ground. (Message edited by ourdee on June 11, 2019) | ||
| Rick_a |
In boot camp we fired practice and qualifications in the rain. On one of those days came thunder. One young man unfortunately lost his life. But, yeah, I've been atop mountainous terrain on a motorcycle with lightning hitting all around feeling quite unsafe. | ||
| Ebutch |
Roy Sullivan struck by Lightning 7 times and Lived to Tell About It !  {852512,}  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan | ||
| Court |
The first time I came close was on I-70 in Western Kansas . . . . . stroke hit the car . . . melted 3 radio antennae into balls of metal atop the fenders. The second time I came close was during a violent thunderstorm in Topeka, KS. Didn't't hit me, got a nearby power line and blew fire . . of sufficient ferocity to put large black burn on the backs of any furniture in front of outlets and black the new tv to pieces. Since that . . . I try to pretty well stay clear. :-) | ||
| Tootal |
A friend of mine at work lost his brother to lightning. He had just rounded up the horses in the barn due to a storm coming. Walking back to the house he was hit and instantly died. | ||
| Etennuly |
I lived in Florida for 17 years. Golfing, bass fishing, motorcycling I saw a lot of lightening. Most times you could feel the change in weather coming and get out of the way. I had a good respect for it. Going home one day, trying to get in the house to escape the storm almost got me. It was just starting to rain fat drops as I ran from my truck to the front door of the house. 25 feet from the front door stood one of our subdivisions concrete light poles. I felt hairs on my head and arms stand up then heat as the flash of lightning hit the top of that pole. My hand on the wet metal door handle I was concerned. It made a very loud crack as it struck. Small shattered pieces of exploding concrete hit the door in front of me and peppered my front yard. Power was off a couple of days as the electric company was replacing burned out underground cable. One of the electric company guys showed me a black stick that looked like an 8 foot long tree root. The first ten feet from the pole to it was completely gone. Left a black stripe in melted sand. I showed him where I was standing and the concrete that hit the door. He told me it was time for me to play the lottery! | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Lightning hit our TV antenna when I was a kid. Took out our first color TV and our first VCR (toploader Quasar) My dad had to take the VCR apart to get the tape out to get it back to the rental place. I even remember the movie: "Jumpin' Jack Flash". | ||
| Xbduck |
I was wondering when my neighbor was going to show up here. NO ONE would set near him when there was a storm moving through. He claimed 9 times, they could only confirm 7 hits. | ||
| Xbduck |
Oh yeah, BOTH of Roy's sons have been hit at least once and are still alive. The oldest was hit once and the youngest I think has had 3 now. | ||
| Gmc310 |
“I’ve been struck by lightning si si six sixty sixty six times” I forget what movie that was from. Lol | ||
| Britchri10 |
N. Fla summer storm last year. Nothing out of the ordinary for here until...Lightning struck an 80 ft pine positioned 15 feet from my house. The strike blew the baseboards off of the walls in the two nearest rooms, fried my well pump that is 100ft in the ground and 150ft from the tree, destroyed my garage door opener and screwed up my stereo. I was lucky! My neighbor lost his well pump and $4k worth of TV's, computers and electrical equipment. His cable setup was hard-wired, mine is wireless. One lightning strike cost me $2k for a new well pump. I've since had all of the 37 trees near the house felled, another $1,5k for cutting. Anyone want any firewood? Lightning is no fun. Chris C |
