this is Roy C Sullivan who was struck by
lightning seven times and this is the
Curious Case of the human lightning
conductor from Virginia USA one of the
most Vivid memories I have as a child is
reading Guinness World Records Edition I
think it was the 1986 book and I read
about Roy Cleveland Sullivan
did you brought up to know that
lightning never strikes twice as that
awful phrase but here was living proof
that you can be hit that many times and
more amazingly I think is to survive it
a single lightning strike carries a
charge of several hundred million volts
and has a peak current of around 20 000
amps which is a lot and while they say
that lightning never strikes twice it
certainly did in the case of this park
ranger
the first time he was struck in 1942 he
was hiding from a thunderstorm in a
lookout tower which had just been built
and it didn't yet have a lightning rod
the tower was struck and when he fled
from the burning building he was struck
and lost a big toenail
Roy's next lightning encounter was in
1969. he was driving his truck in the
mountain now usually this would be
protection from a lightning strike but
he had the window open
and the lightning knocked him
unconscious and burnt off his eyebrows
and eyelashes
oil generates an electric glass to 250
000 volts
both storms cause an electrical
imbalance between the clouds and the
ground which results in electric
discharge and Lightning's hot it can
actually be five times the temperature
of the surface of the Sun
in theory the chances of being struck by
lightning just once in an 80-year
lifespan are one in ten thousand however
this depends very much on where you are
and what you do
Roy was a park ranger in the Shenandoah
National Park in the Blue Ridge
Mountains which meant that he was
outside and at high elevations in an
area that experienced many days of
lightning and storm activity a year the
Blue Ridge Mountains see between 35 and
45 days of thunderstorm activity every
year
in 1970 he was struck in his own front
yard and his left shoulder was seared
and then in 1972 he was struck for a
fourth time whilst in a ranger station
and his hair caught fire
in 1973 he saw some storm clouds
gathering and tried to outrun them when
he thought it was safe he stepped out of
his truck only to be hit once more the
lightning passed through him searing his
legs and singing his hair
Paul Roy was struck again in 1976
injuring his ankle and burning his hair
again
Lori's wife was also struck once when a
storm suddenly arrived as she was
hanging out clothes in their backyard
but this time her husband who was
helping her escaped unharmed
in later life Roy was a lonely man as
many chose simply to avoid him rather
than to run the risk of being struck by
lightning themselves
what really actually stuck with me in
reading about Roy's case especially
after reaching the level of seven
strikes is that he actually died not by
lightning strike but by sadly taking his
own life so he'd gone through all these
seven agonizing experiences survived
what would kill anyone else normally and
yet he decided that he'd had enough with
this world so it's a very sad end really
but it's fun that stayed with me all
these years so Roy is very very very
much deserving of his place in the
Curious Casper
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