Thursday, June 4, 2009

You Can't Make This Stuff Up


No sooner had I posted yesterday's blog regarding our weird weather, than I heard reports of a man struck by lightning. Oh but wait...it gets better. Turns out it was six people, all at once. Actually six young men. They were hanging out behind a liquor store leaning against a metal fence when the lightning struck. Oh, but wait...it gets better...again. The fence was located just off of...wait for it...wait for it...Electric Avenue. But, I'm not finished yet. The only guy out of the group who escaped the strike, he was number seven, was wearing a lightning bolt on the back of his t-shirt. After the group shook the shock, two of the six took off running. "It was like they say a ghost." Said Aaron Sallis. He's the guy in the lightning bolt t-shirt. Lightning Bolt Guy, witnessing the, ah...shaky behavior of his buddies, insist they seek medical help. He called 911. The group walked back to the liquor store where they were met by paramedics.The four were treated by paramedics and taken to area hospitals as a "precaution."

With much waving of arms and bouncing from foot to foot, Lightning Bolt Guy told his story as one of his friends was loaded into an ambulance. Aaron said, "I don't ever want to be that close to lightning again." Hm, what are the odds? According to the National Lightning Safety Institute, well let's just say they accomplished an exhausting body of work. But, to the point

ASSUME -
USA population = 280,000,000. 1000 lightning victims/year/average.
Odds = 1 : 280,000 of being struck by lightning.


1 comment:

toni said...

That was a smorgasbord of coincidences! My favorite.
Carlisle and I were watching our favorite show, Urban Legends, and saw a story about lightning's striking a soccer field during a match. All of the players on one team in the Congo were killed, while none of the other team's members all survived. BBC news calls it a mystery (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/203137.stm) but Urban Legends explained that the dead guys all had the same shoes on, with metal plates on the heels. That's what done them in.