This past summer we had an incredible experience with a lightning strike at our campsite. It was Tuesday morning, July 18. We were camping at our usual site at Sleepy Bend at Sardis, MS. There was only one other camper there besides us. The children were sleeping in and I was noticing that the weather was looking a little questionable and was wondering whether to start a fire for breakfast or just give the kids a bowl of cereal. As they started to wake, I felt a few raindrops and fixed them a quick bowl of cereal and told them to stay in the tent while they ate their breakfast. I walked a couple hundred yards to the lake to get a better look at the fastly graying sky. In the distance I saw a lightning bolt and ran back to camp, threw the kids in the car, battoned down the hatches and barely made it in the car before the bottem fell out. We sat there for a minute until I decided I didn't want to sit there and watch my stuff get wet. That was one of the most fortunate decisions I ever made! We drove around for a while and when we returned, the first thing I noticed was that my tent had caved in on one side. While I was hustling around getting my tent straightened, I looked up and noticed that a tree about 15-20 ft. from the tent had been struck by lightning! In fact, my car had been parked 15-20 ft. in front of it earlier! This was the most awesome scene I've ever witnessed. Large strips of tree trunk were thrown all over the campsite -- as far as 30-40 ft. away. Some of the strips were 6-8 ft. in length. The place looked like the Jolly Green Giant dropped his toothpicks everywhere. As I was mopping water out of the floor of the tent, I noticed 2 holes (like cigarette burns) in the floor by the door. I walked over to the tree and saw that the lightning struck the root of the tree -- in two places. Did the electricity travel underground, maybe attracted to the metal in my tent poles? If anyone knows about this subject, you can e-mail me at [email protected]. I would definitely like to hear from you.
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