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Struck By Lightning!
I'm a band director; my wife teaches Drama, English and Social Studies. For the past eight years, we have been teaching, together, at the same schools.
Invariably, at some point by way of analogy, from the podium I tell the story of the time when Arlee and I were struck by lightning during a camping vacation at Yellowstone National Park. Arlee gets a little frustrated--several students run to her during the day and ask, "Were you really struck by lightning? Did you survive?" She doesn't want her curriculum disrupted by having then to tell the story to HER whole class, again. So, now she can simply say, "Log on to our website and read all about it."
So, for those interested here is, "The Lightning Story."
In
1993, we were newlyweds, on a summer vacation camping trip around
the Western United States. We traveled light enough to fit all
of our gear in the trunk of my Toyota MR2. This was about the
sixth week of our peregrination.
We dutifully watched Old Faithful erupt that afternoon, a short walk from the Lodge. We were not staying at the lodge; we were vacationing on a Catholic schoolteacher's budget. We were camping. We like camping.
After the eruption, we thought to take a long walk on the miles of boardwalk trails, touring the thermal ground. We were alone on the trails that day. We like that, too. The drizzle grew to a steady rain.
"That's OK," we reasoned. "We have no reason to worry about staying dry."
We held hands and watched a few flashes of lightning at the horizon. Ten seconds passed before we heard thunder. It was beautiful. It vaguely occurred to us that we should seek shelter. But, the nearest shelter, at this point the Lodge, was miles away. A few trees stood in the distance, but, did we want to head for them? Lightning can strike trees. In retrospect, the decision to simply keep walking still seems the logical one.
Suddenly, I felt as though someone had hit me in the face. All over my body. No hair standing on end, no smell of ozone. I simply remember sudden pain. Maybe a metallic taste in my mouth. Next thing, I'm getting up from the ground. I somehow figured out what had happened. In an adrenaline rush, I began shouting "I've been struck by lightning! I've been struck by lightning!" and I began running. I suppose my thought was to "get out of there," but where I was headed I don't know. In what must have been a classic Chevy Chase pratfall, I failed to gain traction with my Topsiders, and splatted face-down onto the boardwalk. This was the slap in the face I needed to regain my senses and logical mind.
I noticed Arlee was talking. "It's OK, dear. Calm down. I've been struck, too." (We had been holding hands). My thought was, and is, either she has a much tougher constitution than me, or, she was not struck as hard. However, my focus immediately shifted to concern for her. She seemed alright. So did I for that matter. We decided it would be good to head back to the Lodge.
I was shaken and shaky, and my chest hurt. Arlee said her left thumb tingled, but other than that she felt fine. I wanted a cup of coffee. We began hiking back. Arlee was spouting something about Madeline L'Engle and how angels transmit electricity through there bodies, and the tesseract and how she now understood all of that. I was thinking, "Man, could I use a cup of coffee." I felt violated.
We didn't know much about lightning strikes, but Arlee remembered something about how lightning can throw off your own body's "electrical system" and affect the heart. Thus, we became worried about my chest pains. I sat to rest a couple of times.
About forty-five minutes later, we came upon some hikers. I thought, we should tell them, ask for help, something. "Er, excuse me but we've just been struck by lightning..." It was too surreal. We smiled, nodded and walked on. There was a new batch of tourists waiting for Old Faithful to gush again. We nodded and smiled at them, too. It felt as if we were coming from another world. Maybe it was no big deal.
We went into the Lodge, and Arlee said she was going to get me a cup of coffee. I was definitely the shakier of the two of us. And my chest hurt. Arlee did come back with a cup of coffee, but she had stopped at the concierge's desk on the way back. She recounts the conversation thus:
"Excuse me, do you have a first aid station or something like that?"
"Do you need a band-aid?"
"No, my husband has been struck by lightning." (notice she fails to mention her own situation...she has been struck too, but is not ready to admit to that!)
"Good Lord! Lightning! I'll call the clinic."
It turned out the clinic closed at 5:30, and it was a ten minute walk away, and the time was about 5:35 already. But, they had agreed to stay and wait for us, as a lightning strike is a serious first aid emergency, they felt.
So, I finished my coffee in a gulp. It helped me feel a little warmer, at least. Arlee and I followed the concierge's directions to the clinic. There was much to-do and commotion upon our arrival.
"You are our first lightning strike of the season."
"Let me get the lightning protocol sheet!" (The clinic was staffed by competent professionals, but, seasonally--this particular crew had not yet dealt with a lightning strike even though, apparently, it is not at all uncommon at the park. Less common than buffalo gorings, but still, a regular occurrence.)
"Did you fall?"
"Well, yes, I suppose, because I remember getting up...Oh, yes, and then I fell again when I tried to run away."
"It says here we need to immobilize his spine if he fell."
"I'll get the backboard."
I said, "Excuse me, but I just walked maybe two miles to get here--if there was damage to my spine...isn't it a little late for immobilizing it?"
"You're probably right, but, you'll have to sign this waiver that says you are refusing treatment."
"Next, we have to start an I.V."
This was getting to be a little much. I told Arlee, "I feel fine. Let's just go." But, she felt it could be serious. With the chest pain and all. So, she insisted on at least calling her mother, who is a retired E.R. nurse, to get her opinion.
"Was he holding on to anything?" asked Mrs. Olson
"Yeah, me!" said Arlee. Now her mother chewed her out, and she admitted to the clinic staff that she, too, had been struck. So they started I.V.'s on both of us. Then we rode in an ambulance, at 30 mph--no faster, for the animals' safety--to the park border, where we were transferred to a second ambulance and taken to Jackson Hole for EKG testing. The worst part was how badly I at this point needed to use a restroom. And the road was so bumpy. The paramedic finally gave me a bottle to use. The ambulance crew was very friendly. One of them took the picture at the top of the page for us. We were all joking about the whole situation.
I started to feel warm, so undid my jacket. Around my neck, I noticed and remembered, were my binoculars -- which I had fallen flat upon, during the pratfall described above. That might explain the chest pain.
At the hospital, we were tested and prodded, and eventually, at about 8pm declared healthy. Except that an X-ray had discovered a lightly fractured rib, as I had begun to suspect when I remembered the binoculars and the fall. They suggested I keep coughing, laughing and sneezing to a minimum for a few weeks.
The nurse on duty was reluctant to remove our I.V.'s "I didn't start them; it's not my job to take them out." She eventually softened, perhaps because Arlee started crying and I began pulling at mine myself.
We were cold, tired, wet, shaken and hungry. At no point had we been able to eat dinner. We were 100 miles from our car, and broke. The hospital staff could recommend a hotel in Jackson Hole (out of our price range). Or a taxi back to the campground (also out of our price range). Perhaps a ranger could take us back, tomorrow. Arlee started crying again.
A kindly family, there with a sick child, took pity and agreed to drive us back to the campground, with them.
The camping trip was on the wane from then out.
We have since learned a lot about lightning and lightning strikes. They are still largely a mystery. Obviously, we were not struck directly, or at least not by a very high voltage, because we were relatively unharmed.
Interestingly our automatic camera, which had been around Arlee's neck, did not fare so well. "What happened to this?" asked the clerk at the shop when we took it to be repaired. "The insides are all melted together."
It took a few weeks for my rib to heal, and a couple of years until the insurance billing was all sorted out (don't get me started on the topic of health insurance!), and we had to buy a new camera. Other than that, we, thankfully, are none the worse for wear.
Here are some lightning facts from NWS Melbourne - Lightning Information Center