Survivor
Story: My Fiancé (added 18 June 2006)
About 4 years before this website was started, my fiancé and
myself both loved the summer thunder storms here in Namibia. In
summer whenever there is a thunderstorm you would always find us
outside admiring and marvelling at the lightning and thunder.
About 4 years ago there was an amazing thunderstorm. My fiancé
decided to take her car out the garage so the rain could dust
the car off. I also decided to move my car out from under the
roof into the rain. She went outside to unlock the garage, I was
still inside getting my car keys. The next moment there was a
bright purple flash and a deafening bang! I got such a fright I
jumped! The purple flash was so bright it lit the whole inside
of the house up. The walls all shone a bright purple! An instant
later the dogs came running in as if something possessed them,
and a moment later I heard screaming... it was my fiancé! By the
time I got to the kitchen she had run in and collapsed on the
kitchen floor holding here right arm. She was frantic, shivering
and in shock, shouting that the lightning had struck her through
the garage key as she put the key into the garage door to unlock
it. Turns out that the lightning had struck the electrical
distribution substation next door to us which is about 40 meters
away. Our garage got some of the flashover as she was putting
the key into the metal garage door lock and got shocked through
the key. The whole areas electricity was out and the
municipality had to come and fix the substation next door. After
a while my fiancé calmed down a bit and she seemed to be ok. The
next day she went for a check up at the doctors and they found
that she had lost 60% of her reflexes in her right arm. After 4
years the reflexes in her right arm are back to almost 100%. She
was very lucky that was the only injury. I started filming
lightning last year (November 2005) and decided to start this
website. Of course she is understandably a lot more scarred of
lightning now, and does not like me being outside trying to get
some pictures of lightning when the storm gets too close. She
does not mind too much if the storm is a distance away, but when
it gets to close we go inside. This is why I use a camcorder on
a tripod, I can leave it filming outside when we go in.
Sometimes the lightning storms here move right overhead and
there are always strikes close by. It is pretty frightening at
times. We have since both come to respect lightning a whole lot
more, but we still love lightning very much and I love the
challenge of getting another picture.
