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When Lightning Struck

The Kernaghan Family

What started out as an ordinary day for a family from Courtland ended in an extraordinary way after getting struck by lightning.

COURTLAND - It was like any other ordinary cloudy Monday afternoon for the Kernaghan family.  They were at home, talking with a neighbour who had stopped over to buy a water fountain from them, when suddenly ordinary changed to extraordinary.   

The group was standing between their vehicles and the Kernaghan family home, under an umbrella of trees; the clouds began to look dark and before they knew it, they had been struck by lightning.    

Five people in total as well as the family dog were struck by lightning, Craig Kernaghan explains what he believes happened that day.

"I think the strike came underground, possibly from my barn taking a hit and it came down underground, hit the power in the house and we were in between and it kind of bridged the gap." 

The family was told they had experienced blunt injury as they were thrown violently from the lightning strike.  Kernaghan says it was a scary situation especially for his wife.  

"It was the loudest boom I've ever heard in my life, it seemed like we were in a bubble, I could see like a perimeter of it that that was fluctuating in a split second.  I saw balls of fire or sparking around us.  Then I went to see my wife, as she was just laying there, she was unresponsive."  
 
Kernaghan's wife, Melanie suffered the most serious injuries of the group.  At the scene she was not breathing and was bleeding from her nose and mouth.  Kernaghan admittedly did not know CPR but began to administer it to the best of his ability until the paramedics arrived about 10 minutes later.  She was taken to hospital where her condition improved. 
     
The rest of family (youngest 4 years old) as well as the neighbour and her daughter (5 years old) were also taken to hospital and were released with minor injuries.  Meanwhile, Kernaghan's wife is still feeling the residual affects from the incident and is still recovering.

As for the weather, there wasn't anything indicating that lightning would strike, it wasn't even raining at the time of the incident.  Kernaghan says that the term "when thunder roars, get in doors" doesn't really apply with this particular case, as they had no roaring thunder, giving them no warning of any danger.  

He also wants to clear the record, as he says many people believe they were standing directly and intentionally under trees.

"It was a quiet and peaceful country setting, and it made no sense, none of the many trees on the property were hit, and the entire property is blanketed with trees.  It was just so shocking, my brain was trying to analyze what was happening.  I didn't know what to think.  It never occurred to me it was lightning; there was absolutely nothing, no thunder claps, nothing, I guess sometimes thunder doesn't roar."

Click here to access Environment Canada's Lightning Danger Map. 


 

 

  

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