The Lightning Strike

It seems like Hollywood often portrays lightning strikes in a humorous sense…I remember “The Great Outdoors” where the bear was struck by lightning and knocked the fur off his bottom, and “Caddyshack” where the priest was struck during an amazing golfing outing. But we all know it is some scary stuff and not to be messed with…I still rush through my showers during a lightning storm.

Well anyway…we finally got our first dose of the powerful force of lightning on a trip up to Cullman to attend a get-together with Magan’s family. We were at the Valley Grove community center which sits on the top of a little hill with large hardwood trees rising above the large cinderblock community center. The building was basically one large room with three rows of tables running the length of the building and a kitchen on one end with a counter for serving running across the width of the building separating the kitchen area from the table area. The entrance to this large room was directly in the middle of the longer side and contained a small foyer and bathrooms to both sides. A severe thunderstorm had been in effect for the area, but probably not so severe that James Spann was showing his suspenders yet, probably still in his jacket.

The children had been running the length of the room, and most of the people were up near the kitchen area preparing the food, while a few of the folks were sitting in chairs where they could see the people come in the foyer as they arrived.

Here are some pictures of the calm before the storm...

And then a large flash of blue out of nowhere, followed immediately by BOOM, then followed by dust being blown into your face. The noise was deafening and sounded like the large firecrackers near the finale of a big show, yet these firecrackers being in the same room with you. The lights went out immediately, and children began to cry. What followed was somewhat chaotic as I ran toward James who had Anabelle. We gathered the children in the kitchen area that had some light where we could check to make sure they were OK.

James then later flipped the breakers back on and walked the room to assess the damages. All of the lights were still working, but along the back wall of the building two of the sockets had been blown out of the wall and a large piece of cinder block was blown out of the wall. Two of the ladies who were near the path of the strike had burn marks on them, and pieces of the cinder block had caused some cuts on one gentleman, and gotten in his eye and caused it to be very red. All that were injured have since been checked on OK.

All in All, we were very fortunate the children were not in that area during the lightning strike. Davis now tells this story pretty often to others and lets you know about the large BOOM.

The next picture is not for the faint at heart...it shows James showing what will happen if you touch the socket just like this...