Lightning Causes Local Problems; Including Strikes At Two Schools
August 2, 2010
Heavy lightning from afternoon storms caused problems across North Escambia Monday afternoon.
Several strikes at or near Ernest Ward Middle School activated the school’s fire alarm. The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue responded. No fire was found.
A lightning strike also activated the fire alarm at Byrneville Elementary School. The Century Station of Escambia Fire Rescue responded. No fire was found, however a problem was reported with the school’s emergency lighting
On North Highway 99 near Highway 97, lightning sparked a brush fire and also set a part of a fence on fire. The fire was quickly extinguished by the Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue with the help of heavy rain.
At the NorthEscambia.com offices, lightning led to a power failure and telephone and Internet problems. Frontier Communications and Escambia River Electric were able to restore the services in a short period of time. The NorthEscambia.com website, which is hosted a server in the Northeast, was not impacted by the outages.
Numerous power outages were reported across the area. Some customers with without power for several hours.
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10 Responses to “Lightning Causes Local Problems; Including Strikes At Two Schools”
Here’s the procedure at my house when there is a storm…open the guest bedroom door to let the dog in, close the curtains so that the room is dark, make sure the bed skirt touches the floor evenly all the way round so that the space under the bed is nice and dark and free from any hint of light (from lightening strikes)..heck,
my hubby even had to place wooden blocks under the legs of the bed so that our dog can safely crawl and fit under there to hide from the storms. Once she is under there and the above protocol is in place…she will stay there until I give her the all’s clear signal. “It’s okay Molly…you can come out now!”
I stand corrected. The portable phone near where we heard the crackling seems to have died a violent death.
(sound of TAPS)
Lightning sure played havoc around our place yesterday. It zaped a pecan tree, security light, seven can lights, a microwave, and the phone system, plus a room airconditioner. Things was looking up this morning though, Ronnie made it out of Betsy’s shower stall, and came over to see me.
Even the dogs were afraid…..our black lab Ronnie hates lightning, today I found him hiding in my shower stall !!
That was a spectacular storm especially on the north end of Escambia County. I’ve never been within a lightning stike zone like that in a long time.
I loved it. I grew up in SoCal where there is no weather. Once every five years you might get a lightening storm and they are nothing compared to the Heavy Rollers that blow in here. Mother Nature at her worst here… Just like a scorned women.
Good Job Firefighters! Keep one foot in the black…
we had some loud crackling in the den when lightning hit outside but nothing caught on fire or blew up and the electronics started back after a few minutes. When I was growing up, it was fun watching it hit the tin top shed back of the house. I was too ignorant to realize how dangerous it was.
I don’t remember ever seeing lightning like that. It was very scary!!!!
We had fun here at the NorthEscambia.com office with the lightning. We had several hits very near the building, including a nearby tree. It was one of the worst lighting storms right at our office that we have ever had.
I’m In the Barrineau Park area close to 97 & I was scared!! Luckily we didnt lose power..it “flickered” a few times…it is just that time of yr! The high temps arent helping…STAY SAFE!