Simple Times

SIMPLE TIMES

BY SUZY McCRAY

THE CO-OP PANTRY The Underrated

Killer

“I’ve been in hurricanes, hailstorms, a blizzard and tornadoes, even spotted some tornadoes in the Great Plains, but nothing in the world of weather scares me more than lightning,” explained Wes Wyatt, a meteorologist with WBRC Fox 6 weather for the past decade.

And after what happened here on the farm about a month ago, I tend to agree!

Most of us reading this magazine live in the South. We’ve grown up scared of tornadoes and knowing we should seek immediate cover when a weather watch changes to the more serious tornado warning. But how many of us really take it seriously when thunderstorm warnings are issued, and how many of us have stayed in the fields, in the garden or on the tractor trying to get just a little bit more finished even though the darkened skies were rumbling with thunder?

I was walking toward the side door of our brick home, coming from the tiny general store on our farm, about 9 a.m. The grass remained wet from a steady drizzle that had dampened our spirits but enlivened our garden throughout the night.

I was wearing my usual outfit of jeans and a tee shirt, socks and a $5 pair of canvas tennis shoes from the local big box store.

As I approached about 15 feet from the door, sud denly fire crackled out from the internet and old cable and old phone lines still attached to a box beside the door. At the same instant the fire shot out, I was shocked up both legs from my feet to my hips just as a huge boom of thunder shook the neighborhood so violently that a neighbor on the “back road” was so frightened she called her husband at work.

Husband Mack was next door picking up daughter, Jannea, for an errand and the boom shook his big Dodge truck violently.

I entered our house QUICKLY! Once I calmed down my breathing seemed OK and I didn’t seem any worse for wear – but you can bet there were (and are) several prayers of thankfulness that went up from the same direction that lightning had come down!

Only days later did we find the extent of the several hundreds of dollars of damages to things in our home. But that damage really seemed minimal when we kept remembering “what could have been …. ”

During my nearly 35 years as a reporter, some lightning strikes remain always in my mind and heart. There was the sweet toddler, playing innocently while his parents picked vegetables in a friend’s garden, only to lose his life quickly when lightning struck from

seemingly out of nowhere. A beloved football coach struck on the practice field while there didn’t seem to be a storm anywhere.

Then there was the couple in a small town near here who lived in a beautiful home built with native rock. That home was struck by lightning twice, with the last strike causing the house to burn to the ground. Thankfully, the couple escaped unharmed and moved into Oneonta where their new home was struck by lightning a short time later!

Wyatt told me, “You can track many weather phenomena and you can track thunderstorms, but you never know where lightning is about to strike. It’s been termed as the underrated killer.

“Storms are common during the warm season, so the threat of cloud-to-ground lightning is a common thing around these parts. Some days many may find themselves trying to finish mowing the lawn and see dark clouds on the horizon or hear a rumble. I always say the good Lord made thunder loud for a reason, to warn us to go inside.

“Thunder is generated by lightning and if you don’t see a bolt but hear a rumble, I guarantee you lightning is there, and you need to go indoors as soon as possible.”

Wyatt said, “Perhaps one of my most memorable stories was from a summer about eight years ago. I was home in the month of August and a storm de veloped right over my home. There were frequent cloud-to-ground lightning bolts followed by the loud est thunder you can imagine. When you hear those claps of thunder that almost sound like gunfire, you immediately think something’s been struck and the lightning channel went through the neighbor’s ceiling and into the lawn. It was like a giant pitch fork had gone through their home from top to bottom.”

Wyatt continued, “All the circuitry upstairs was fried and some electronics, but thankfully the home didn’t catch on fire. I also received a photo that day showing what’s called a positive leader extending from the roof of a home similar to that day. To capture that with a camera is quite remarkable as this is something that occurs in a matter of a millisecond, but this is the beginnings of a lightning strike, and looks like an arc of electricity extending toward the heavens.

“It’s important to remember that ALL storms contain lightning. But just because a storm has an excessive amount of lightning doesn’t necessarily mean that storm is severe. Just remember that lightning has been documented as striking miles away from the actual storm.”

While statistics seem to show that lightning strike deaths are low in the United States (such as 27 fatalities per year), some lightning deaths may not be reported as such. A lightning strike can result in im mediate cardiac arrest (heart stopping) at the time of the strike, but death may occur days later, according to the U.S. Weather Service.

And while the statistics appear low, if you or a loved one are the one or two who die from lightning in Alabama each year, the statistical lowness seems unimportant!

The Insurance Information Institute ranks Ala bama as seventh in the nation as far as insurance structural claims due to lightning with 2,942 claims per year amounting to about $34.5 million or about $11,768 per claim.

Agriculture losses can be high such as when light ning strikes a tree killing all the cattle sheltering under its branches.

Wyatt recalled a “gentleman who worked on a catfish farm and told me his truck was struck by lightning under a sunny sky. He said a storm was approaching, but he thought he was safe because of the distance … but lightning struck his truck.”

You can be assured we’ll be more serious when a thunderstorm is approaching our farm or if we even hear thunder in the distance from now on!

And we’ll stand even more in awe of God’s mag nificent creation! “Lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding.” (Psalm 148:8)

(Suzy and her husband Mack strive to live a simple life on a small homestead in Blount County. She can be reached through their Facebook page or at suzy. mccray@yahoo.com)