When Steve Wald took his two sons and a neighbor friend to the pool on a hot summer day, he didn’t realize that they would be caught in a storm and only seconds away from being involved in an accident with an overhead power line brought down by the force of that storm.
Steve and the three boys hit the water at the local pool, and someone heard thunder. The pool’s policy is to remain closed for a half hour after thunder is heard or lightning is seen.
As the half-hour wrapped up, another sound of thunder came from an approaching cloud system. The lifeguards blew their whistles and announced the pool would be closed again for another half hour. Steve and the boys then decided to leave on their bicycles.
“At that point, the second storm was moving in pretty rapidly, and the sky was getting very, very dark,” Steve recalls. “I remember being a little bit nervous…and I realized that it was likely that we were going to be caught by the storm on the way home.”
Steve and the boys were three blocks from home when the storm hit. With a flash of light, a power line came crashing to the ground along their path home, just down the street from where the boys were.
Steve immediately took the boys to a nearby friend’s house for shelter. He knew it was safer inside.
“Getting caught in the storm really did turn out to be a risk, and if our timing was a little bit different…,” Steve reflects. He shudders to think of what could have happened to himself and his loved ones that day.
Working with Safe Electricity’s “Teach Learn Care TLC” program, Steve, his two boys, and their friend want others to learn about storm and downed line safety. A video on their close encounter can be found at SafeElectricity.org.
Safe Electricity urges you to:
- Check weather forecasts so you plan to stay inside when a storm threatens.
- If you are outside, seek safe shelter in an enclosed building or vehicle.
- If you see a downed power line, stay far away, instruct others to do the same, and immediately call 911 and the local utility.
Don’t get caught outside in a storm. Check weather forecasts and know the difference between weather-related terms. Watch forecasts on the television, listen to the weather on the radio, or download an app for a mobile device to keep forecasts at hand.
If you have an outdoor activity or event scheduled, plan ahead so you are not caught outside in a storm. Have a backup inside location as a precaution in case a storm threatens.
If you are inside when a storm strikes, stay inside. If you do get caught outside, find an enclosed building or a vehicle with a hard-top roof to take cover. There is no safe place outside during a storm.
When a storm strikes, power lines can come down. Remember, just because a power line is down does not mean that it is out. Power lines can still be live after they have fallen to the ground, and you do not have to touch the wire to be electrocuted.
Fallen power lines could electrify a chain link fence, a vehicle, or the road. Electricity always looks for a path to ground, and you do not want to be that path. You do not have to see arcs and sparks for the danger to be deadly.
“You may not see it. You may not hear it. But if you see a downed line, assume it’s hot and stay very far away from it,” Steve warns.
Don’t take chances with your safety. Don’t get caught in a storm. Learn more about storm safety and see the story of Steve, his two boys, and their friend at SafeElectricity.org.