Have you ever had a close call with tornado or lightning?

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Permalink Reply by Bill Silva on June 19, 2009 at 9:28pm

Hi Pat,
I had a couple of unique experiences with lightning and tornadoes. Lightning does strike in the same spot twice! When I was in 6th grade and lived in Syracuse, N.Y., we were playing cards in the garage because it started storming outside. There was a puddle on the concrete floor. A bolt came in and hit the puddle and knocked my friend out of his chair. After the shock, we started playing again and had a good, but jittery laugh. A lightning bolt came in again and hit almost the exact same spot and knocked him out of his chair again. We went inside the house!

I have more, but I will wait until later.
Bill

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Permalink Reply by Pat Coyle on June 20, 2009 at 8:21am

Reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the two guys are talking, and the one says to the other, "no kidding? you were hit by lightning twice too?" Meanwhile, unbeknownst to either, there's a meteor hurdling toward them.

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Permalink Reply by Ben McCann on June 19, 2009 at 9:47pm

I don't know if this counts... but you remember last year when we had the FLOODS... here is the video that I posted on SI that helped launched the REBUILD volunteer effort... I took it from my cel phone coming home from mens prayer that morning... my prayer was that God would bring my neigborhood together and that families and neighbors would be connected. little did I know that an hour later... the WHOLE COMMUNITY would be changed.

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Permalink Reply by PK Koduri on June 19, 2009 at 10:54pm

2002 - the tornado that went through Martinsville (I think). I was attending IU Business School at that time and driving to Indianapolis for an appointment with INS. I could see it in my rear view mirror and kept driving towards the clear Indy sky. I saw the damage on the way back.

2004 - saw some storm clouds and like an idiot jumped in the car with my camera only to drive right into blinding rain, debris and wind that shook my car. Sat in the middle of the road for what seemed like an eternity. Went home turned the news on only to find that a tornado touched down in the neighborhood and took out some newly constructed homes including some belonging to folks I worked with.

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Permalink Reply by Ben McCann on June 19, 2009 at 11:25pm

Oh yeah... I remember that, I had forgotten about the TORNADOES... when that happened, I was a LINEMAN with the PHONE COMPANY and didn't know there was a warning, I was working on a LINE in HOPE Indiana out in the country... I saw the sky turn quickly and the wind picked up so bad that I couldn't climb down from my ladder, so I just double Strapped in and held on to the terminal and RODE out the storm... ti wasn't until I got down after the storm and picked up all my tools that had fallen to the ground that I heard that a tornado had touched down just north of me.

I literally thought I was going to DIE... I watched the SKY CHANGE from 20+ feet up and thought as I rode out the storm about my family, my life, and how close I came to an end.

After that I always paid attention to the Weather reports for the day before I would go out on service orders... It wasn't long after that I left the phone company after 3 & 1/2 yrs... my wife was very relieved.

Big Props to all those LINEMEN out there... be careful... the job is dangerous enough without bad weather.

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Permalink Reply by Michael R. on June 20, 2009 at 7:22am

I got hit by a lightning bolt as a child. I guess that explains my electric personality.

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Permalink Reply by Jonalyn Perez on June 20, 2009 at 4:13pm

I captured this last summer, right before the big flood came through Columbus, IN.
Not all that shocking, but definitely the first time I ever captured lightning. :)
But then again, I also got stuck where I was at due to rising water. :(

Attachments:

• lightning2.jpg, 437 KB

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Permalink Reply by Michael R. on June 20, 2009 at 6:45pm

Awesome capture, Jonalyn. I've always been fascinated by lightning.

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Permalink Reply by Jonalyn Perez on June 23, 2009 at 12:01pm

Thank you!
Me too..as you can tell.
I think one of these days...I will probably just end up chasing storms. :)

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Permalink Reply by Ben McCann on June 21, 2009 at 1:58pm

WOW... what an awesome picture!!!

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Permalink Reply by Jonalyn Perez on June 23, 2009 at 12:01pm

Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Poteet on June 21, 2009 at 9:51am

Some friends of ours in Noblesville got zapped two weeks ago and lost all the big-ticket electronic stuff. Closest we've come in the house across the street. Pieces of the house's brick landed in our front yard. It was one of those bolts seemingly outta nowhere....in fact we were just coming up in from the back yard when the very loud crack sounded.

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