12 August 2012

Lightning

Rico says his friend Dave sends these disturbing photos, and an admonition:
A man got hit by lightning on a Monday morning on a golf course in Madison, Wisconsin. The following are pictures of what was left of his bag. Please pass this along to your golfing buddies. Read what the policeman says, then take a look at the pictures.
"I have been a police officer for eighteen years and have seen a lot of gruesome and disturbing scenes. This one was different because it hits close to home, and some of us have been in this situation.
A 75 year old golfer was out on the course with three other retired guys for a regular weekly tee time, and the weather forecast didn't even predict rain at 10pm the night before.
They teed off and got around to the back nine when it started to rain, and, when there was a little lightning way off in the distance, they headed in. They waited under a tree half way in when the rain became very heavy. When it let up a little bit three of them then continued in, but one guy decided to wait it out under a fifty-foot pine tree, with an overhang of ten feet, whilestanding next to his bag.
Minutes later a lightning bolt struck his bag and push cart as he was holding onto one of his clubs, killing him instantly.
On the top of the first photo you will see what was left of his driver; in a later photo are little brown clumps which used to be golf balls. Most of the items in the bag simply disintegrated from the heat and intense initial zap, including the labels to his Ping irons and Cleveland woods (which all popped off). The electricity burned holes into the bottoms of the clubs. The strange thing is, the tree under which he was standing had no sign of a lightning strike. The bolt literally went sideways under the tree to the golf clubs." 
Lesson to be learned: if you are caught out on the course or water, distance yourself from anything metal or graphite.
Did you know that lightning rods are often made of graphite?Put your cart fifty feet away from you and, when you see lightning off in the distance, don't wait, but go in immediately!

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