It was the summer of 1975; the sky was gray, and there was some light rain.
Michael McQuilken and his brothers had climbed to the top of Moro Rock when they
suddenly noticed something strange: their hair began standing on end.
Michael’s sister Mary then took a picture of him standing next to his brother Sean.
Suddenly, the weather dropped and turned into a freezing nightmare.
Furious rain began to pour down from the sky, and a lightning strike followed by a sound of
thunder. A lightning bolt had struck the mountain, and its different strands hit several people...
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On Christmas Day of 1994, Michael McQuilken received an unlikely holiday present from
his sister. At first glance, it seemed like it was just a
simple copy of next year's ‘Weather Whys and Wonders’ desktop calendar.
But Michael was puzzled by what he saw next. The calendar’s cover was a photo
of his brother Sean and him that dated back to 1975. And it was not a common picture at all.
In a blog post from 2013 titled “A Hair Raising Experience on Moro Rock,” Michael recalled:
(QUOTE) “I had not seen that photo for years, and to see it on the cover of a calendar
was completely unexpected. I asked my sister where she had the calendar made for the gift.
She told me that it was not made for me, that they were in every bookstore she had visited.”
The brothers were standing next to each other in a gray landscape. Their hair was
sticking up into the air, and both were smiling, wondering what was happening.
Although it may have looked funny at first,
the picture made Michael remember what happened next during that summer on August 20, 1975.
In Michael’s words: (QUOTE) “Sean and I were in for the shock of our lives. Literally.”
Climbing the Moro Rock
Michael had just finished exploring Yosemite National Park on the John Muir Trail when he
met his family at the Kings Canyon National Park to spend some time together in nature.
After enjoying Kings Canyon, the McQuilkens camped at the Sequoia National Park located
in the Southern Sierra Nevada, east of Visalia, California.
On August 20, Michael and his brothers, Jeff, Sean, and Mary,
decided to head to the top of Moro Rock. Margie, her sister’s friend,
was also with them, and their parents decided to stay in the parking lot.
Moro Rock is a granite dome formation located at the center of the Sequoia National Park,
between Moro Creek, the Crescent Meadow, and the Giant Forest. Before beginning the journey,
the McQuilken brothers could see the imposing dome-shaped granite monolith.
They also noticed the gray sky, with dark clouds hovering over them. Soon, it also started to rain.
The hiking team decided to continue to make their way to the top,
utterly unaware of the imminent danger.
The teens slowly began climbing the stairway that comprised over 400 steps.
And despite the worsening weather conditions,
the young hikers stopped from time to time to appreciate the splendid view Moro Rock offered.
Once at the top, the McQuilkens also took some time to take pictures of
the horizon alongside six other visitors. It was then that they noticed something strange.
Lightning Strikes
The McQuilkens were taking pictures of each other and exchanging the camera
with each other when they noticed their hair was standing on end.
They were puzzled by this strange physical occurrence and decided to take more pictures.
Michael recalled in his blog: (QUOTE) “I took a photo of Mary,
and then Mary took a photo of Sean and me. I raised my right hand into the air,
and the ring I had on began to buzz so loudly that everyone could hear it.”
Everyone was having a good laugh, not realizing they were in danger as the storm worsened.
Unexpectedly, the temperature abruptly dropped from 65 degrees Fahrenheit to freezing cold.
Heavy rain also began pouring down, although there was no wind at all.
Moments later, Michael, Jeff, Sean, Mary, and her friend started the descent.
Michael wrote in his blog that halfway down,
just where Moro Rock and a small granite converged, there was a narrow saddle.
When his brother Sean approached the zone and Michael was about 10 feet behind him: (QUOTE)
“Suddenly, I was immersed in the brightest light I have ever seen. I moved my head from side to side,
and all I could see was bright white light, similar in appearance to arc welding light.”
Michael then had a strange feeling of weightlessness for some seconds,
as if his feet were no longer touching the ground and he was suspended in the air.
A lightning strike had reached him and his siblings.
A Sound of Thunder
Michael describes that he heard a deafening explosion, and when he realized what was
happening, he saw that he was on the ground with Jeff, Mary, and Margie.
When Michael turned, he saw Sean collapse and huddle on his knees, with smoke pouring
from his back. Michael got up and immediately approached his brother. He was still alive.
Without hesitating, Michael removed the burning pieces
of his brother’s clothing and carried him away.
As the siblings made their way down to the parking lot, they saw a man on the ground.
His wife was desperately beating on his chest, trying to bring him back to life. Jeff, Mary,
and Margie took Sean while Michael stayed to perform CPR on the man before help arrived.
The man’s skin had acquired a blue tint and had a small burn mark close to his heart.
His name was Lawrence Brady, and he didn’t survive the lightning strike.
When the paramedics and rangers arrived, Michael was told that
one bolt of lightning had struck Moro Rock and that it had split into several fingers.
One hit Sean, another hit Mr. Brady, and another hit a photographer that was taking
pictures at the top. As the lightning bolt hit the photographer, it destroyed his camera
and completely disintegrated all his clothing, including his body hair, which never grew again.
The man fell unconscious and did not wake up until six months later.
Lightning Awareness
12-year-old Sean lived to tell the story, but the lightning strike left him with third-degree burns
on his elbows and back. According to Michael, his brother lived because he was not wholly
grounded when he was hit. He says that perhaps it was because they were near a metal handrail.
He added: (QUOTE): “The lightning jumped from Sean’s elbow to the railing,
along which it traveled down to Lawrence Brady.
The lightning also continued down the railing to the parking lot, where it hit a drinking fountain
made of stone and concrete that was in front of where my parents were sitting in their truck.”
The fountain exploded in a hundred pieces, leaving scattered stones on the ground of the parking lot.
After the incident, Michael and his brothers went on with their lives. Then Mary gave him
the calendar with the infamous picture on the cover and all the memories came back.
Michael concluded that the calendar’s publisher downloaded the picture from NOAA, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Apparently, his mother kept in touch with
the park's rangers, which used the picture to warn visitors of the dangers of lightning.
According to NOAA, between 1982 and 2011, over 54 Americans lost their lives every year on average
due to lightning strikes. The institution has stated that if your hair starts getting up,
it is a clear indicator that you must seek shelter immediately.
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