Lightning Strike Explodes Tree, Woman Narrowly Avoids Injury in Heart-Stopping Video
A Louisiana woman barely avoided injury recently when a stray lightning strike turned the front of her house into a danger zone.
Sarah Ribardi of Morgan City had just stepped out of her house on the evening of Aug. 7.
A doorbell video of the incident shows her step through the front door and stand near it as it slowly closes.
Then suddenly, lightning strikes a tree not far from the home, sending a shock wave of debris flying past the house about head high.
“Like, I knew I came close, but I didn’t know I got that close,” she told WWL-TV.
“And then when I watched the video I was like dang.”
“I was going outside to get my bag and I was getting ready to run to my car because it was raining outside,” Ribardi said.
“And right as I was getting ready to run is when the lightning struck.”
“God was definitely with us! One step closer and [I] would have been seriously injured! [Lightning] struck our next door [neighbor’s] tree,” she posted on Facebook.
“Glad our neighbors and family are okay!”
She said her father, who was inside the house, watched the force of the lightning’s impact strike her.
“He said he literally watched me get thrown back,” she told WWL.
WWL meteorologist Alexandra Cranford said the incident shows the power of lightning.
“A single bolt can pack well over a billion joules of energy,” she said.
“That much energy would keep your bedside lamp going for up to half a year.”
The video shows Ribardi duck back into the house as a cat scared by the strike runs for shelter.
The tree that was struck was about 20 feet from her house.
“Debris went flying everywhere,” Ribardi said.
The lightning strike “damaged three houses and damaged four vehicles. To our house, some wood went through the walls. We also have little window AC units, it broke those,” she added.
Ribardi said her car was damaged to the tune of about $3,000 and a neighbor’s car suffered even worse damage.
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