Lightning blew away part of tree from top to bottom
It sounded like an explosion, and nearly jolted reader Ted Turner out of his chair. 'It' was a direct lightning strike on a 70-foot oak tree in his neighbor's front yard on Thursday evening.
That would be the same night the Plainfield High School graduation ceremony got rained out.
The night I sat with other visitors at the Planning Board meeting in City Hall and watched the storm move down from the Watchung Hills and sweep southward across the city.
The force of this particular strike blew a strip of the tree from the tip to the ground clean away, scattering chunks of tree and bark across the lawn. Some pieces weighed maybe 60 or 70 pounds, and would surely have been fatal if they had struck anyone.
 Reader Ted Turner left a voicemail-- "You gotta get over here right away and see this!" |
 Looking up the trunk of the damaged tree |
 Yours truly with the damaged tree |
So, what DO you do when lightning roars?
First, as Gerri Hirshey says in today's New York Times, you disregard the folk wisdom.
You also check out NOAA's Lightning Portal, and the National Weather Service's Lightning Safety page, where you learn today is the beginning of Lightning Safety Week.
Just in time.
-- Dan Damon
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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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1 comments:
We had a similar experience when we lived in North Plainfield, but it was a locust tree in our backyard. Same tell-tale strip from top to bottom. Tree was dead within a few days.
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