'The electricity from the lightning actually went through him and caused him to black out and go to the floor.'

“It was pretty much the worst thing you could imagine,” a witness who helped the parasailers said. “It was real bad.”

America's energy grid is facing serious problems, which means the central U.S. may be facing forced blackouts this summer.

The Houston Fire Department department was ready and willing to take extreme measures to get the stranded victims down.

Some observers wondered whether it was a downed aircraft, some sort of meteor or indicative of Russian military activity.

Thankfully, the family's five dogs survived, but many of Dea's chickens, doves and parakeets are displaced, missing or dead.

A new forecast predicts there is no end in sight to the drought conditions in the West -- and that they'll likely spread.

'As a teacher and a human, it's amazing how the smallest little thing can make a huge impact,' she told a reporter.

One of the survivors was Alvaro Alzate, who is 62. His brother woke him up early, and Alzate said that's the only reason he's still here.

A curious occurrence puzzled them: Somehow, after their trash bins were emptied, they'd end up back at the side of the house as if by magic.