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The lightning storms
August 3, 2006
Tomorrow I will attend my first Yankees game. It will probably be nice and hot. And extremely unexciting. Because it’s baseball.But what is the opposite of unexciting around here? The lightning storms.
At home, when lightning strikes, it is usually just ignored and accepted as a passing storm. No one bothers to give it any more attention beyond the first flash and goes about their business. We live with the lightning.
This, I hear, is how things used to be around here as well. However, last summer, in the middle of a practice, a storm quickly moved onto campus and the children sauntered to the cafeteria to avoid the rain. Around fifty children were walking across the lacrosse field, when a bolt of lightning struck a tree less than 20 yards away.
This wasn’t just any bolt. This lightning had places to go. Immediately after striking the tree, it moved into the earth, and came back up right under two younger boys who were moving especially quickly to the dining hall. They were instantly knocked from their feet, as well as the mass of kids surrounding them, creating a ripple effect of children across the field.
Fortunately, the boys were fine, but as with any chance occurence at a kids’ camp, the administration acted quickly and installed lightning alarms all over campus.
My first experience with the system happened earlier this summer as I was rock climbing. The sky began to grow dark and I shrugged it off. Suddenly, a loud, obnoxious siren rang through the sky and the two male counselors I was with began running about like the wall itself would explode. They looked at me, alarmed that I wasn’t acting as if the drops of rain would kill me instantly, and told me to run.
Since then, the alarm has sounded no less than once a week. Every time, choas ensues and the staff drops everything and runs, gathering children along the way and tossing them headfirst into buildings.
This past weekend, in Ocean City, as we slept on the beach, an advertising boat rode along shore and sounded an attention-grabbing siren which happened to be very similar to the familiar ring of death by lightning at camp. We sat straight up at the first tone, trapped in the routine of saving lives, and before gaining complete apprehension after being asleep for two hours, were briefly panicked by the amount of children on the beach that day that we would have to rescue.
Categories: Daily, Jobs, Traveling
August 5th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Oh gosh! How frightening! I’ve never been in a situation like that before, but I can’t even imagine how scary it would be O.O I hope the kids are all fine, and no one got seriously hurt…
August 6th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Aren’t lightning alarms a bit.. silly? Lightning doesn’t tend to warn before it strikes, and people have been hit by lightning inside buildings too. It just takes the common sense to not stand in fields during torrential downpours.
You were right by us when you were in Ocean City! I was vacationing with my family this week at Cape Henlopen, DE.
August 6th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Wow, that was indeed scary. I like seeing flashes of lightning appear acroos the sky, but only when I’m indoors of course. It’s a good thing nothing happened to the two boys, but I bet they must be mighty afraid of lightning now. I can’t believe that you didn’t run when the sirens rang, especially after what happened to the boys before.
That last paragraph cracked me up. It’s like you guys were programmed to save lives at the sound of the siren. But that makes you guys responsible coaches, and the children are in safe hands.
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:06 am
Great story, and glad no one was seriously hurt! I apsolutely love lightning! However with great respect. Started capturing pictures of lighnting last year and we had the first thunderstorm of the season last weekend. Managed to get some new pictures which are already on my blog. Unfortunately most of the lightning was cloud to cloud lightning, so it does not look as spectacular as some of my other pictures on the website. My Fiance was struck by lighnting flashover about 4 years ago and lost 70% of the reflexes in her right arm. Her arm has taken all this time to get back to normal. We get alot of lightning very close by at home. Some can get as close as 40 meters or less! That gets a bit on the crazy side though and is pretty terrifying to say the least. The frequency of strikes also is unbeleivable, it can get about as high as 6 - 10 strikes a minute!