Lightning strike: a personal account

One of our readers over at Uber Review posted this personal account of getting electrocuted after lightning struck her house – she was inside at the time.

From Amy:

My husband and I were at home when the lightning struck our house, our car, and us during a terrible thunderstorm. It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to us. The storm came on in a matter of seconds. All you could hear is thunder booming one after another. I turned the appliances off and told my husband to put the kids in our bed away from the windows. I was looking out the sliding glass door gripping the handle about to open the door because our gutters were falling. My husband was hanging the curtain back up and this loud boom as if a bomb exploded sounded and the brightest light i ever seen lit the kitchen up and I lost all control over my body; it felt like a 100 pound weight was placed on my chest, my skin was on fire, and I lost my eyesight for like 30 seconds. I thought I was dead.

My husband experienced the exact same feelings at the time of the strike. When we came to and realized what happened, we were already screaming and running to each other in a pitch black house, scared out of our wits. The hair on our skin stood straight up till the next day. My right eye is now opening smaller than my left and has been red ever since. My eye glasses are too strong and I’m seeing clearer. Weird!

My husband is fine, we just felt wired up the next couple days. When the lightning hit, it hit my house, bounced off, hit the tree that hangs over the side of my house, and hit the car parked underneath the tree next to the house. The car won’t start at all and the fans come on when the keys are put in the ignition; it won’t even go into gear. I haven’t looked for burn marks or anything yet. This happened yesterday July 14th at midnight.

My flat screen wont turn on, and the cable box that was connected to it won’t cut on either. Probably fried it. The cable runs right out my bedroom window and comes out next to the car, so it would make sense to me that the lightning ran through the cable, out my house, through my car, through the tree, and out the ground. That’s the only logical explanation I have about this crazy night. Bad luck I guess. The power box blew up too. The electric people came out that night/morning – whatever. They responded very well. Thank God my kids didn’t feel anything. I think we got hit because we were grounding ourselves by touching things connected to the house.

—Thanks Amy!