# Working in a Lightning Storm



## Hardly Working (Apr 7, 2005)

So today we had a killer lighting storm and I was working outside. I have to say I was a little nervous. I wasn't holding a steel rod but I was holding my worm drive through most of it.

So how warm and fuzzy would you feel?


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

All else being equal, there's not a lot of difference between being outside with a saw or inside holding a corded telephone to your ear during such a storm.

If it's really carrying on, I tend to find something else to do.


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## greg24k (May 19, 2007)

You read stories and wonder how did this happen?... and there is really not much you can come up with other then the cause for the accident was stupidity and lack of common sense. Have to learn to work safe my Friend because s^*t happens and people get seriously hurt...


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## fast fred (Sep 26, 2008)

I will admit it, I am scared of lightening, I've had it hit very close to me lots of times, some of those times have been with a metal bicycle between my legs and no where to hide. I always have this feeling god is trying to take me out for all the bad things I've done in my life

I used to do alot of residential work with cranes over my head, anything from a boom truck to a tower crane. whoaa, so I'd be the first one in my car making sure there was nothing but rubber between me and the ground. 

the tower cranes were usually grounded out so you didn't really need to worry much. At one job on a hill top we had three different cranes working with no trees in sight, so I'd just feel like we were one big lightening rod, most of the guys don't have the fear I do, but we'd drop the booms as the storms would get close and drop the ball onto the ground

I could go on and on, but lightening, scares me..................... so I'm the first one to run and hide


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## shanekw1 (Mar 20, 2008)

Unless I am on a roof holding a 12' piece of aluminum j trim in the air, lightening doesn't really bother me.

In fact, I usually run outside at the first sign of a thunderstorm to watch.


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## Brian Peters (Feb 2, 2011)

A man I know was recently closing a big sliding door on the front of his chicken barn during a storm . The barn apparently took a direct hit by lightning ..when he came to he was laying across the hood of his pickup wondering what happened ! Knocked out his electronics in the barn and a few electric motors as well...


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## tedanderson (May 19, 2010)

I'm not afaid of thunderstorms but out of wisdom I won't work on any wiring that's connected to something outside of the house. e.g. if the HO has his phone service coming off of the pole, I won't do anything with the phone system.

I've heard horror stories of technicians who have been electricuted that way and even though I find it very hard to believe, I don't want to verify this first hand.


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## Hardly Working (Apr 7, 2005)

Watching the morning news this morning a man was hit by lightning while riding his motorcycle on the freeway. A witness following the motorcycle said the lightning hit him in the helmet he was able to actually pull to the side of the road and when the motorist pulled over with him he didn't know why he pulled over. He was then able to write another half a mile or so to a gas station where they called paramedics after he removed his helmet half of his hair was missing singed off and his ear we're singed around the top. Like somebody said s*** happens


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## Live_oak (Jul 22, 2013)

I was on the tractor in the back 40 with a bushhog just trying to get it knocked down in advance of the 3 days of rain expected. You could see the storm approaching and I was cutting it close---to getting drenched, I thought. Heard a big boom! Like to peed my pants and decided it was time to hit the shed with the tractor. When I came in the house, the telephone in the kitchen was smoking! Seems the lightning hit the phone pole and traveled in and fried all of the phone circuits!

I don't sit on a big hunk of metal anymore when the snap, crackle, and pop starts to be on _this _side of the river.


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## NCMCarpentry (Apr 7, 2013)

I really try to avoid it. Last time we decided to head in when a guy I work with got a bit of a tickle when holding aluminum soffit. I was involved in craning steel beams in place during a lightening storm once, nothing happened. That was stupid, I was 18 at the time though.


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## mudpad (Dec 26, 2008)

Several years ago my crew was pouring 2nd lift of a 30' high wall in steel forms when a lighting storm came up. It didn't take long for them to get off the wall when I told them to. Then the damn storm just sat on top of us for about 2 hours. Lost 2 loads of concrete, had a cold joint in the wall, but nobody got hurt. 

Next morning I realized they had left the vibrator in the pour in their haste to get down. The shaft of that thing is still in the wall. Extra reinforcing. It's in the smaller tower in the back in the photo.


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## ESSaustin (Mar 27, 2010)

Back in the late nineties I was framing a performing arts theater in SoCal, which had a sunken area in the slab in front of the stage, which collected water. Our cords would lay through this pond and give us a shock from time to time. One time the foreman was trying to throw his wormdrive but his muscles would not let go.


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## mudpad (Dec 26, 2008)

fast fred said:


> the tower cranes were usually grounded out so you didn't really need to worry much.


But if the head ache ball is close to the ground and lightning hits the cable apparently it's easier to jump to ground from there. Then you got no choice but to replace the cable- even if it looks good on the outside, you can't see what may have happened inside. :sad:

It happened to this one, 5 G's got her fixed up and running again.


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## KennMacMoragh (Sep 16, 2008)

I love a thunderstorm, I was outside that day but didn't have a saw in my hand.


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## wakonako (Sep 7, 2013)

I'm in Florida. When we see a storm rolling in, soon as the rain starts dropping everybody comes down from scaff/ladders. Soon as teh lightning starts we step inside. 15 minutes later its back to work.


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## mudpad (Dec 26, 2008)

Rule of thumb: throw down a dime. As soon a 3 drops hit it, its time to get out of the rain. Of course the guy that's watching the dime isn't getting much done in the meantime. :laughing:


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## Trim40 (Jan 27, 2009)

Couple of weeks ago I ws wheeling atop a 12,800' moutain in a storm. I ran out and took a few pix also.
Not the smartest thing.


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