[at-l] Lightning

[PUDSCRAWLER at aol.com (PUDSCRAWLER@aol.com)]

Some time ago, when I was ten years old, I was sent to a six-week girls' camp 
in the Hill Country of Texas.  That first summer there, I first became 
acquainted with extraordinary electrical storms.  It was the first time that I 
realized that in one second one could be safe and sound in one's bunk and the next, 
one could be totally fried in the same place.  Storm after storm came and 
went. I lay there trembling through each one.

In college I had my first introduction to the terror of tornadoes. By then I 
guess I'd philosophised that the odds were that, if one obeyed the lightning 
rules, one probably would escape that fate.  But tornadoes!  This was even a 
worse threat.  I trembled in my boyfriend's strong arms as he assured me that he 
wouldn't let one get me.  (He was from West Texas where they have STORM 
SHELTERS.)  I continued to be uncomfortable with the thought that either a bolt or 
a tornado might have my name on it.

Then in Wilderness EMT-B training, we were taught how to deal with a 
lightning strike.  They became less threatening in my mind as I learned what terrain 
to seek to be less vulnerable, to walk at least 20 feet from others when 
lightning was present, and that, if one were struck, it was entirely likely that one 
could be revived with CPR.

Indeed, here in the Rockies, we have numerous survivals of lightning strikes 
every summer.  They get revived.  They live.  Slowly I became more and more 
cavalier about these threats from the sky.

Then I read Gretel Ehrlich's A MATCH TO THE HEART, the odyssey of her 
lightning strike, this past week.  It is a terrible thing to know where she got that 
title.  Nevertheless, this is a good book to read if one wants more knowledge 
about how to avoid electrocution and what to expect if it does happen.

If you are still looking for OT, February reading, I'd recommend this book.  
Do not be fooled by the title.  It isn't talking about Valentines.

Kinnickinic