[OT] Tragic and bizarre: couple dies when struck by lightning

[Numion]

Have you heard about that girl in the middle of a crowd at a rock concert who got killed by a lightning bolt? The stage and the towers and all stuff was much higher than her position.

Where I lived with my parents a lightning struck a house in the same yard which our house is, about 30 yards away. Our house is two storeys high, theirs was one. And we live near a giant 1000ft + metal communications mast.

Luckily it was during holidays and nobody was there. Only the living room was blasted, and bunch of electronics broke down, even in our house.

 

[Eternalknight]

Shocking story...
....

 

[Bagpuss]

Would it be rude of me to say that they won the Darwin Award?

It wouldn't be rude just incorrect, as to get a Darwin award you must die before you have off-spring. They had three kids.

 

[Enceladus]

Shocking story...
....

I'm energized by the whole thing. I mean, I'm really charged to be more careful during a thunderstorm.

 

[Bagpuss]

They actually made two mistakes. During a lightining storm you never want to be under a tree. Since lightining almost always hits the tallest thing around, there is a good chance it will hit a tree. Then said tree will fall, most likely on you. I know it sounds strange, but the best thing to do is lay flat down on the ground.

I've heard that one of the dangers with trees is although they can attract lightening they arn't particularly good conductors, and like all resistors they heat up when electricity passes through them. This causes the water in the wood to boil leading to the trunk exploding, firing splinters of wood everywhere.

That and the lightning jumps from the tree to other nearby conductors, like people.

But yes sheltering under a tree in a lightning storm is generally a bad idea.

 

[KChagga]

originally posted by Thorntangle
I've heard that you have a moments notice before lightning strikes. Supposedly you can feel the ground's charge shift, a little tingle in the feet. If you're quick enough you could jump out of the way.

I was in my girlfriend's house when it was hit with lightning and I can tell you that this is true. About a second before the lightning hit I felt a weird tingle and all of my arm hairs seemed to stand on end.
The lightning didn't hurt anyone, but it did put a football sized hole in the roof. It killed 2 tvs, a vcr, and a computer. Funny thing is that the charge that went into the air set off all of the firealarms in the house despite there being no fire.

Kinda freaky to think that lightning struck about 15 feet away from you.

 

[Buttercup]

It wouldn't be rude just incorrect, as to get a Darwin award you must die before you have off-spring. They had three kids.

True. Then they were just shockingly dumb.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

I'm not going to be that guy who comes in here and plays the "offended politically correct" card about people getting a giggle out of someone's tragedy - cause in fact, I do find it sort of funny in an abstract way.

I will say though, that even though sitting in metal chairs under a tree in a lightning storm is capital 'S' stupid, it's not Darwin Award stupid. More of a shrug-your-shoulders-geez-they-should've-known-better kind of stupid. Darwin Award stupidity is in another league entirely, even without the "doing evolution a favor by removing yourself from the gene pool before breeding" requirement.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I can't tell you how many times I have stood under a tree holding golf clubs waiting for a storm to pass. I think you are being harsh. Most people don't want to get soaked and go under the tree for protection of the rain. getting struck by lightning is so rare that you figure, it can't happen to me. If you were outside and a storm comes up, what are you going to to, stand in the middle of an open field? It was a freakish accident, I bet the metal chairs had nothing to do with it, just plain bad luck.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

I think you are being harsh.

LOL! That didn't take long at all. Speak of the devil, I suppose...