Do you know anyone who's been struck by lightning?

[Orrex]

If so, tell us the story!


(To those haters who are inclined to post puns about electricity, I urge you not to conduct yourselves in such a shocking fashion.)

[billyskank]

1. My friend Joules did once

but it was his own volt.

[Orrex]

13. Hater

Don't forget to buy bread.

[rug]

2. No. My friends are not easily impressed.

[Orrex]

14. Now that's funny!

Along the lines of:

Bob: I'm taking her to that fancy new restaurant.

Joe: Do you have reservations?

Bob: No, I've heard nothing but good things about it.

[moriah]

3. I wasn't struck directly, but it hit about 10 feet from me.

I was about seven or eight years old, at a friend's house, there were woods behind her house and we were playing.

A storm came up and we started running toward her house, more afraid of a tornado than of anything else -- we do live in Tornado Alley and it was a pretty bad storm.

It struck about 10 feet behind us, threw us to the ground. I couldn't hear very well for a few days after.

Later on when I went to the doctor next, they asked if I'd had a bad ear infection recently -- one of my eardrums had burst.

[Orrex]

15. I've heard a couple of stories like that

When I was a kid, a friend was thrown from his bed when lightning struck his house--he's not sure if he jumped out, startled by the noise, or if the jolt heaved him out, but it was a pretty near strike.

[britpopper]

4. No...not yet...

...but I run around outside in thunderstorms holding a tall metal pole...not really but it did strike about 20 yards from me once...kind of a scary moment...

...oh and once in 5th grade, the kid next to me reached back and stuck a bent paper clip in the electric outlet, that was a pretty cool thing to see...

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Yes, but he didn't make it. :^(

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. This guy was... several times

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

7. My ex-sister-in-law

She was camping with a boyfriend and a dog when they were all hit. She still has a zipper-shaped scar down her leg. The dog died ;-(

[Turbineguy]

8. Me.

I was on a ship in the James River area. Freshly promoted that day. We were loading ammonium nitrate. The hatches were open. It started raining. Very heavy rain. I went out on deck and was instantly soaked. The drops were so close together it was hard to breathe. I thought about Noah.

A group of us gathered to close a hatch cover that was being moved with a crane. One other guy and I were guiding the cover into place with some ropes. All of a sudden everything turned blue. There was a blue haze all around me. I fell on the deck and could not get up until I figured out how to stand up and walk. It was as if I had to push the reset button on my brain.

Anyway, after that the other guy and I was called the "Bolt Brothers". I'm not sure he was affected in any way as he appeared to have taken a lot of LSD at a period of his life.

I became a Democrat.

OK, I was an Independent before.

[PermanentRevolution]

9. Not directly...

But I saw a bolt hit and explode a power transformer about 10 feet away... that was cool!

[LadyoftheRabbits]

10. A kid in my pre-school

In Mississippi. We went to some picnic area as a field trip, and not 30 ft. away from me he was struck (or next to a tree that was.) :scared:

[Blue Diadem]

11. Not personally. True story of shoving my foot in my mouth about it.

When my youngest was in elementary, I was talking with another Mom whose boy played baseball with mine. I was ticked off that the coaches hadn't pulled the kids off the field from practice when it was storming and lightning. They'd told the kids to go under the trees and that made me furious. I made a comment about the coaches getting the golfer mentality, go sit or stand under a tree and become a lightning conductor. As soon as I said it her face went ashen. She managed to sputter out that her Dad was a golfer and he had died getting hit by lightning on a golf course.

Naturally I felt terrible and apologized profusely and she hasn't spoken to me since.

edited to add I can't spell!

[Nikia]

12. Yes and he died

My sister went out with him a couple of times. He was working a summer job doing landscaping. His metal shovel that he was holding evidently attracted the lightening and his heart stopped beating. He was still in high school when it happened.