Mont. Woman Survives in Lightning Strike

Mont. Woman Survives in Lightning Strike

BILLINGS, Mont. - A local woman suffered minor injuries, including some hearing loss, after lightning struck her home and a nearby tree Sunday night.

With a severe thunderstorm looming, Liz Fulton went to the front door of her west side home shortly after 10 p.m. to call for her cat.

"I just happened to have my finger on the light switch when it blew up, and I was thrown to the floor," she said Monday. "I just saw this big flash in my face. I told my husband that at first I didn't know if I'd been shot. You just don't know. It felt like it exploded in my left ear."

Fulton said she still has trouble hearing in one ear.

"It could have been a lot worse," she said. "I couldn't open the door because the wind was blowing so hard."

If she had opened the door and stepped onto the porch, Fulton would have been standing directly below the tree that took the brunt of the strike.

The lightning traveled through the tree into the ground, spewing bark and sod onto the street. A gash in the lawn exposed the tree's roots.

The bolt spread to the house in a fireball that neighbors said was visible from several lots away. It "fried" the computer and took out the phone, the electric garage door and most of the light switches in the house, Fulton said. The switch she was touching was scorched, and an outside light was broken.

Fulton went to the hospital and was treated for minor injuries and released. Besides hearing loss, she suffered burns on her arms from flying debris.