Struck By Lightening Twice And Lives To Tell The Tale...

[Homicidalheathen]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/09/03/hm.li...fety/index.html

SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) -- Joe Sauers doesn't get too upset when his co-workers call him "Sparky" or whenever they move away from him during a thunderstorm.

Lightning is a constant threat from spring through fall no matter where you live, meteorologists say.

Sauers, 55, is well-known around the Savannah, Georgia, Port Authority, where he works, as the man who has survived being hit by lightning twice.

Sauers suffered serious injuries after the first strike 11 years ago. He remembers standing about a foot from a backyard tree when it was hit. "It rattles your whole body," Sauers said. "It felt like I was on fire."

He said the electrical current first hit on top of his forehead, cracking his jaw and injuring his inner ear. It traveled through his body, creating long-term damage to his kidney, and finally exiting through his right foot.

A year later, he was standing about 6 feet from another tree in his back yard when lightning stuck. The jolt blew him off his feet and knocked him unconscious for a few minutes. He suffered no major injuries.

Since then, Sauers has cut down all the remaining trees in his back yard, and now, when he hears thunder, he doesn't hesitate to act quickly. "I get inside right away. I hear thunder and poof -- I'm gone. It's looking for me." Health Minute: Staying safe in a storm »

Health Minute

Watch for Judy Fortin's Health Minute on Headline News

10 a.m. -6 p.m. ET weekdays.

see full schedule »

The National Weather Service says lightning is the second-leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, right behind flooding. Yet Lans Rothfusz, the chief NWS meteorologist in Peachtree City, Georgia, believes people don't think they're at risk. "The odds of winning the lottery are roughly one in 15 million, and everybody thinks they're going to win the lottery. So you have to put it in context and realize that one in 400,000 means there's a pretty good chance of getting hit, especially when you're outside."

Lightning is a constant threat from spring through fall no matter where you live. There is a "double peak" in severe weather in the U.S., Rothfusz said. The worst thunderstorms, along with hail, peak in the springtime, but fall -- especially October -- is considered the second peak. Southern states may get the brunt of thunderstorms in the fall.

Experts suggest the safest place to be during a thunderstorm is inside a large, enclosed building. Small outdoor shelters, dugouts or sheds do not offer the same protection. Interactive explainer: lightning safety tips »

A hard-topped vehicle is a safe place during a storm, but make sure all doors and windows are closed, and don't touch any metal surfaces.

As a last resort, the NWS says, if you're stranded outdoors during a thunderstorm, find a low-lying area. Squat low to the ground, tuck your head and touch the ground as little as possible. "You want to be in a place where you're not the tallest object," Rothfusz said.

Your Health Tools

MayoClinic.com: Health Library

Healthology: Health Video Library

Health Minute archive

He urges people to pay attention to changing weather patterns and follow the 30-30 rule: "If you see that flash of lightning and hear a rumble of thunder within 30 seconds, you're at risk of getting hit by lightning. ... Thirty minutes after the last rumble of thunder, it's safe to go outside."

While inside, he recommends staying off corded phones and other electronics, including computers, and refraining from taking a shower or washing dishes. "These are things that put you at greater risk of getting hit by lightning or feeling the effects."

If your house gets hit by lightning, the electrical charge can be carried through metal pipes and appliance cords or cables. Lightning tends to travel through water, so people taking a shower, bath or washing their hands can be injured or killed by the electrical charge, he said.

Sauers says that the first time he was hit by lightning, there was blue sky overhead and clouds in the distance. He's done taking chances in thunderstorms. "When I hear thunder, I'm gone -- and people get away from me." E-mail to a friend

And.....

June 18, 1999: Either lightning is attracted to testosterone, or men spend an inordinate amount of time outdoors swinging metal objects about. Men are struck by lightning four times more often than women.

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/essd18jun99_1.htm

Also:

Pa. Man Struck by Lightning, Again

HAMLIN, Pa. (AP) - July 29, 2007 - Lightning can strike twice. Just ask Don Frick.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also on 6abc:

Discuss This Story | More Bizarre Bazaar Stories | Get 6abc.com Wireless

6abc Podcasts | Video on Demand | Captionville | RSS Feeds

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frick survived his second lightning strike Friday - 27 years to the day of his first - and emerged a bit shaken with only a burned zipper and a hole in the back of his jeans.

"I'm lucky I'm alive," Frick told the AP in a phone interview Sunday night.

Frick was attending Hamlin's Ole Tyme Daz festival on Friday afternoon when a storm came up quickly. He and six others sought refuge in a nearby shed shortly before lightning struck the ground nearby. The strike sent a shock through Frick and four others in the shed.

"It put me up against the wall," the 68-year-old Frick said. "When I came to and realized I was alive, the first thing that came to my mind was that I'm pretty lucky.

"It burned my zipper off, burned my pockets, but didn't burn me."

None of the others in the shed were seriously injured, said Frick, whose experience was first reported by WNEP-TV.

Twenty-seven years earlier, Frick was driving a tractor-trailer in Lenox, Pa., when, he said, the antenna of the truck was struck by lightning. He said his left side was injured in that strike and that he was laid up for three-to-four weeks

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=...&id=5520679

More lol sorry this is kinda funny to me....

Subject: Re: Roy Sullivan -- Struck by Lightning 7 Times...Bio?

From: j_philipp-ga on 29 May 2002 04:49 PDT

Most resources trace back their data on former Park Ranger Roy C.

"Dooms" Sullivan of Virgina to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Quote "Lightning" by Ron Hipschman:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weather/weather.html

"According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Sullivan bas the

dubious distinction of being the most lightning-struck person ever

recorded. Between 1942 and his death in 1983, Roy Sullivan was struck

by lightning seven times. The first lightning strike shot through

Sullivan's leg and knocked his big toenail off. In 1969, a second

strike burned off his eyebrows and knocked him unconscious. Another

strike just a year later, left his shoulder seared. In 1972 his hair

was set on fire and Roy had to dump a bucket of water over his head to

cool off. In 1973, another bolt ripped through his hat and hit him on

the head, set his hair on fire again, threw him out of his truck and

knocked his left shoe off. A sixth strike in 1976 left him with an

injured ankle. The last lightning bolt to hit Roy Sullivan sent him to

the hospital with chest and stomach burns in 1977."

LA Weekly has to say this:

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/99/13/books-rugoff.shtml

"Then, in 1983, the man who owns the Guinness record for having

survived the most lightning strikes took his own life, reportedly

after suffering a lover's broken heart."

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=18653

Have people actually survived being hit by lightning multiple times?

01-Dec-2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Cecil:

As a kid, I seem to remember reading on the back of a cereal box about a man who got struck by lightning seven or eight times during his life, totally at random, with no scientific explanation as to why this poor soul (the final strike killed him) was subject to these heavenly barrages. I also recall that the guy's headstone, by an infinitesimally small chance, was hit by lightning and obliterated some years after his death, which is very spooky. He had clearly annoyed somebody by his mere existence. Could you confirm or deny this electrifying (sorry) tale? — Greg, London, UK

Cecil replies:

I can confirm about 80 percent of it, putting it 79.9 percent ahead of most of the yarns that cross my desk. No doubt we can thank the cereal box, where at least you had somebody from Kellogg's (Weetabix, whoever) keeping things straight, in contrast to, say, Wikipedia, which is more the million-monkeys-with-a-million-keyboards approach. First the accurate 80 percent: the human lightning rod you're thinking of is Roy Cleveland Sullivan, for most of his life a forest ranger at Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. He was struck seven times:

While in a lookout tower in 1942.

While driving in 1969.

While walking across his front yard in 1970.

While standing in a ranger station in 1972.

While on patrol in the park in 1973.

While checking a campground in 1974.

While fishing in 1977. Fine, the guy's job kept him outside a lot. Still, seven?

Roy suffered assorted losses during these encounters: toenails, eyebrows, hair, and eventually his nerve. After the fourth incident he started to believe some higher power was trying to kill him, according to a 1989 St. Petersburg Times article; the fifth time came after he tried unsuccessfully to outrun a cloud he thought was following him. Given that, ignoring Bayesian considerations, the chances of being struck seven times in your life are about 1 in 1.6 times 10 to the 25th power, I don't blame him for a little paranoia. Lightning didn't end up killing Roy, though — he took his own life at age 71. Can't help thinking he wanted to beat the universe to the punch.

Now for the balance of the BS 20 percent — the headstone angle. I suspect you or the cereal company has conflated Sullivan's well-attested story with a possibly apocryphal tale about one Major Summerford. According to numerous accounts, Summerford was a British officer who, while on horseback in Flanders in February 1918, was struck by lightning. After moving to Vancouver, he was again hit in 1924 and once more in 1930. Dying in 1932, he rested in peace until 1936, when lightning allegedly struck either his tombstone or close to it. Great story, huh? Well, I can't verify any of it — and brother, I tried, searching vainly in print and online for anyone with a similar name and description, including British and Canadian military records and Vancouver history. I did notice the interval in years between lightning strikes was 6-6-6. You may call that a sign; I call it fishy.

I turned up something else interesting, or rather my intrepid assistant Una did: one of the Teeming Millions who has survived multiple lightning strikes, namely August Hellman of Arkansas. He says he's been struck twice, once while baling hay in an Oklahoma field in 1959 and again while sailing on Savannah Bay in 1977. In both cases, he said, the storm advanced quickly and left him nowhere to hide. Just before the first strike his hair stood on end, the baling wire made a "crinkling" sound, and he noticed a strong smell of ozone; the sailboat's mast made a similar sound just before the second strike. Mr. Hellman reports having had a sense of impending doom in each case, perhaps as a result of static charge buildup, followed by an earsplitting noise and a few seconds of lost time. Although both times he suffered severe burns and sore muscles, he wasn't permanently injured. Still, he's not looking forward to strike three.

When you consider that more than 31 million bolts hit the ground annually in the U.S. alone, what's surprising isn't that some folks are struck repeatedly but rather that most aren't struck at all. A federal study of lightning incidents from 1959 to 1994 shows that over that time roughly three people were killed and nine injured by lightning per million flashes, though mortality is dropping — by 1994 injuries outnumbered deaths eight to one. Other facts of note:

Men really take it in the shorts, accounting for 83 percent of lightning victims.

Golfers make up just under 5 percent of victims.

July is the most common month to get struck, noon to 6 PM the most common time, and Saturday and Sunday the most common days, with Wednesday a strong third. Why Wednesday? Wild guess: doctors' day off.

—CECIL ADAMS

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/061201.html

...and my kids wonder why I make them come in out of the rain.

[Scary Guy]

I heard of a story as a kid. There was a guy who got struck by lighting and lost his hearing and his sight. Then was hit again 60 years later and got them back. Not sure where I read that but apparently I found it interesting enough to remember.

I just checked Snopes, it doesn't have anything on it one way or the other.

[Kit Kat P]

seems like guys have far more of tendency to get hit than girls

[Scary Guy]

seems like guys have far more of tendency to get hit than girls

Well it's because we've got built in rods :D

(Hey if I didn't say it I know someone else would have).

[Homicidalheathen]

No its because men work outside more, and with steal more...outside.....and more men golf. Which is dumb when you see a dark cloud comming. Common......is getting close to the 18th hole that important?

Its a metal rod. Hello!