Lightning Strikes

[Karen Lips]

I just wonder if anyone here has heard about the lightning that struck a tent pole in the Confederate Artillery camp at 2:45 a.m. Sunday at the Gettsyburg reenactors event. Two people had moderate injuries and three had minor injuries.

 

[Michael t]

Being an Electrician and studying electricity I wish people that are camping in tents of any style would retire to their vehicles, the rubber tires offer some protection from the power of lightning. Better safe than sorry, have a plan for storms. Electricity respects NO ONE we need to respect it!!

 

[KiltedOne]

I was in the Federal Camp, and can tell you that it was one heck of a storm! It came up fast and furious and stalled over the area for a good 90 minutes. There wasn't much wind, but the rain fell in buckets. The lightening was so close and intense that even in your tent you were forced to close your eyes from the flashes. Although there wasn't much wind, the force of the rain took down tents and flys.


Most of us would have had to cross large expanses of open fields to make it to where the cars were parked, and that just wasn't a good idea. We were alerted by the Fire Department, who managed to bring their brush truck down into the camp, to stay put once they determined that there were no injuries in the camp. They then shared with us the incident in the Reb's Artillery Camp, but at that time there were not many details to be had.

By the morning the storm was over, the ground was soaked, the roads into and out of the camps were impossible to navigate (lots of stuck vehicles in deep ruts made by the fire department vehicles).

Later that day we learned that there were three minor, and two moderate injuries from the lightning strike, and that one of the victims was/is six months pregnant. As of Monday all had been released from the hospital and none had any serous injuries.

-------

Brian Mackay
97th PVI


Ancestor of:
Henry Englebach, 93rd PVI, and 98th PVI,
Joseph P. Cliver 23rd NJ (Yahoos),
John Cliver 23rd NJ (Yahoos) KIA Salem Church May 3, 1863.

 

[Karen Lips]

Wow! that was some storm.

 

[ghostchaser]

I read about this in our local news paper, in AL.

 

[M E Wolf]

Keep all of us informed if anybody can..

Having fond feelings for re-enactors and living historians regardless of sides, impersonations, etc., I would appreciate all the feed of information possible.

It is a special community in my opinion -- one worthy of keeping in thoughts, prayers and lend a hand if required.

M. E. Wolf

 

[Pvt_McIntire]

My tent was about 15 feet from the one that was struck. I can't add anything except to say that emergency personnel were on the scene very quickly (within 10 minutes) and EMTs went tent to tent to make sure that those of us in the vicinity were okay. Kudos to them and the organizers for a quick response. We took up a collection around camp the next day and contributed $350 for the folks towards a new tent. The amazing thing was that there were no burns on the tent--canvas was ripped and the front upright had splintered. It could have been a lot worse as our limbers were just a ways down the hill and I don't like to think what would have happened if they had been hit.

 

[sargebill]

I don't mean to make this storm sound trivial and im glad those that got hit are ok but it doesn't sound like anything worse than anything we don't get down here in Florida (The lightning Capital of the world) on a daily basis during the summer.

 

[STRI Volunteer]

My tent was about 15 feet from the one that was struck. I can't add anything except to say that emergency personnel were on the scene very quickly (within 10 minutes) and EMTs went tent to tent to make sure that those of us in the vicinity were okay. Kudos to them and the organizers for a quick response. We took up a collection around camp the next day and contributed $350 for the folks towards a new tent. The amazing thing was that there were no burns on the tent--canvas was ripped and the front upright had splintered. It could have been a lot worse as our limbers were just a ways down the hill and I don't like to think what would have happened if they had been hit.

I was kind of wondering what a lightning strike would do to a canvas tent, I thought "burnt" for sure.