Lightning struck twice in Halfmoon Bay on May 26 during a quick but forceful storm that brought heavy rains, loud thunder and flashes of lightning to the Sunshine Coast.
Susan Egerman was watching TV in her home on Eureka Place at about 6 p.m. when she heard a loud crash and saw a flash of electricity make its way into her house through the television’s electrical cord.
She realized quickly that her home had been hit by lightning.
“The lightning came into the house through the cable and hit the television. The cable box has a surge protector on it so it went out and came right back on again,” Egerman said.
When the TV came on again it was flickering and had no sound.
“I called the cable company the next day and they said ‘it probably zapped your television,’” Egerman said.
Egerman said she’s familiar with lightning strikes from her time living in Minnesota, where she had her home grounded by way of a copper wire to dissipate regular lightning strikes in the area.
“But it’s rare here, so people don’t think to do that,” she said, noting her Halfmoon Bay home was not grounded.
The next morning Egerman took her two dogs for a walk in Sargeants Bay where she came across a tree that was obviously struck by lightning the day before as well.
“It spewed bark all over the path so it’s impossible to miss if you’re there every day,” Egerman said.
“The lightning hit near the top of the tree and then it spiralled all the way down.”
The tall cedar near the marsh held a wood duck nest (inside a wooden bird house) that Egerman said was destroyed in the strike.
“At the base of the tree there were the remains of the wood duck house and some of the eggs you could see were cracked and the house was splintered into many pieces. There was a crater there at the bottom of the tree,” Egerman said.
Seeing the destruction reminded Egerman of lessons she learned as a child.
“It’s a good reminder not to shelter under a tree in a storm, which I think we probably all learned as kids,” she said.
