The number of lightning strikes worldwide is estimated at 50 per second and 20% of those result in ground strikes. Lightning strikes are estimated to result in 24,000 deaths and 10 times as many injuries each year worldwide. Roy Sullivan is one of these fatalities and perhaps the number one survivor in the world.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the majority of lightning-related injuries are preventable. Contrary to popular belief, standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, is not an acceptable excuse.
Some of the best ways to safeguard against lightning strikes is easy to follow.
Stay away from windows and doors, and stay off porches. Do NOT lie on concrete floors or lean on concrete walls during a thunderstorm. Lightning can travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring
One in ten thousand people are struck by lightning over 80 years of life. That’s 1 in 10000. Do you think it’s possible to get struck twice (that’s a 1 in 100,000,000 chance)? Thrice (a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 chance)? Imagine getting struck seven times. Mathematically that’s a one in ten octillion chance (an octillion has 27 zeroes – so the exact figure here would be 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) which is next to impossible. Or is it?
Meet our hero Roy Sullivan! Struck by lightning seven times and still he survived. Holds the Guinness Record for being struck by lightning the most. Our Superman under discussion was a park ranger in Virginia.
Roy Cleveland Sullivan (February 7, 1912 – September 28, 1983). According to Sullivan, he was struck by lightning seven times between 1942 and 1977, surviving each time. He earned the nicknames “Human Lightning Conductor” and “Human Lightning Rod” for this reason.
Virginia averages 35 to 45 thunderstorm days per year, most of which fall in June, July, and August. Between 1959 and 2000 lightning killed 58 people and injured at least 238 people in Virginia. Maybe the heavens above Virginia had a grudge against him and the only way to take out the fury was to electrocute the guy.
In 1942, the clouds sent a direct bolt of lightning which hit Sullivan’s leg and exited through his toe, leaving behind a burned toenail.
Interestingly, a direct lightning strike occurs when a person or object becomes part of the main lightning discharge channel, and the impact of the lightning passes directly through it. Direct lightning strikes are rare, but the most deadly.
Yet, Sullivan lived to tell the story.
After strike one, strike two hit Sullivan while driving his truck down a mountain. It knocked Sullivan unconscious and burned off his eyebrows, eyelashes, and most of his hair. The uncontrolled truck kept moving until it stopped near a cliff edge.
Another famous baseball player, Ray Caldwell, also survived a knockout by lightning. In a report by Accu Weather, “Accounts from the day claim that the lightning struck Caldwell by way of the metal button on his hat and exited through his metal spikes. Surrounding teammates were also struck. Catcher Steve O’Neill tossed away his scalded mask, while shortstop Ray Chapman nearly fell over due to the numb feeling in his legs.
It takes three strikes to punch a player but Sullivan refused to leave the Home plate. Strike three bolted down while the ranger was in his front yard. The lightning hit a nearby power transformer and from there jumped to his left shoulder, searing it.
However, the real truth of what exactly happened may go unnoticed. According to the report published by the NHIC, surviving this hit was nothing short of a miracle. The extra voltage injected into transformers can cause a major explosion. Lighting bolts can contain up to 120 million volts. When a transformer blows, it can knock out power for hundreds or thousands of people.
One fine day Sullivan was sitting inside…get this inside… his ranger station. Something must be seriously wrong if the skies found you even when you were sitting indoors. His hair was set on fire he threw his head under the bathroom sink but didn’t fit under it so he used a wet towel to douse the fire.
Since then he carried with him a thermos full of water – lest lightning decided to set him on fire again.
But unlucky as he was, strike number five occurred. Three years later his ankle got struck – and his water carrying was indeed useless. Sullivan reported that he saw a storm cloud forming and drove away quickly. But the cloud, he said later, seemed to be following him. When he finally thought he had outrun it, he decided it was safe to leave his truck. As he stepped out, lightning took its chance and struck once more.
The most merciless of them all was against him and his wife. As the happy couple hung clothes out on a steel wire, they both got hit mercilessly.
Although he survived again, not all couples have been that lucky. One recent news report published on the BBC shared the sad death of a couple on August 5, 2022.
An elderly couple from Wisconsin are among three dead after they were struck by lightning near the White House in Washington DC, police say.
James Mueller, 76, and Donna Mueller, 75, were visiting the US capital to celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary, their niece said.
The most dramatic of them all – The lightning hit the top of his head, singeing his hair, and traveled down burning his chest and stomach. Sullivan turned to his car and then another unexpected thing happened, a bear appeared and tried to steal trout from his fishing line. Sullivan had the strength and courage to strike the bear with a tree branch.
After surviving the seven lightning strikes, he was nicknamed the “Human Lightning Conductor” or “Human Lightning Rod”.
