Can lightning injure people taking baths or showers?

Can lightning injure people taking baths or showers during thunderstorms?

Although this devastating force of nature (which kills an average of 58 people a year) usually claims its victims from those who are caught outside during thunderstorms, lightning has injured (and even killed) those who were indoors. People talking on landline telephones have been hit, as have those who were standing in front of windows. Yet the electrical discharge mayhem doesn't end there.  People doing the dishes, taking baths, and showers have also been harmed by bolts from the sky. 

Lightning strikes into the ground near homes have

sent devastating jolts up pipes and into sinks and bathtubs. Metal pipes used in household plumbing provide effective conduits for the massive electrical charges released by even a single bolt. 

Such injuries are relatively uncommon because one has to be doing dishes, bathing, or showering at the precise moment when a bolt hits. However, people have been injured in this fashion.

Falicity Wishkeno

• In May 2008, 15-year-old Falicity Wishkeno of Topeka, Kansas, was hit by lightning while taking a shower. Said Wishkeno, "Right when I got in the shower, I heard the thunder hit. I saw this big, white light. I jumped out of the bathtub and collapsed. I had trouble breathing, and I couldn't feel my legs at all. I felt all this pain in my legs and my whole body."





Abbie Jackson

• In November 2007, a bolt struck a teenager who was washing her hair at her home in Blandford, England. 

Said Abbie Jackson of the event, "It hit my wrist and basically lit up my arm. The shower-head flew out of my hand."

• In October 2006, a woman in Croatia was struck by lightning while brushing her teeth just as lightning struck a pipe outside the her home. Said Natasha Timarovic of her experience, "I had just put my mouth under the tap to rinse away the toothpaste when the lightning must have struck the building. I don't remember much after that, but I was later told that the lightning had traveled down the water pipe and struck me on the mouth, passing through my body. It was incredibly painful, I felt it pass through my torso and then I don't remember much at all."


• In June 2001, Josephine Martine of Deal, England, was blown out of her bath tub by a lightning bolt. The mother of three, who had been soaking in her bath tub during a thunderstorm, was catapulted naked through the air by the force of the bolt, landing on the other side of her bathroom. Said Martine, "I felt a huge kick in my hand and knew straight away it was electricity. In a split second I saw the water rippling. The kick of the electric shock was so powerful I was sort of thrown out of the bath. It was scary, but it happened very quickly."


• In August 1988, as Eleanor Loux of Exeter, Rhode Island, brushed her teeth at her bathroom sink, she saw a bolt of lightning leap from her toilet. The resulting ball of fire then bounced off walls and the ceiling in her bathroom until it dissipated. Surprisingly, Loux was not injured. Her bathroom, however, was another story.  The ceiling was cracked and the bathtub had charred rings in it. A utility pole outside her home had been hit by lightning, which sent the resulting charge through neighborhood power lines and metal water pipes.

As to how to remain safe indoors during a thunderstorm:

• Stay away from windows, because lightning bolts can enter the home through cracks around the sides of windows.


• Don't take baths or showers, brush your teeth, do dishes, or in any other way put yourself in contact with your plumbing.


• Stay off landlines. Use a cell phone instead. Landline phones are the number one cause for injuries from lightning inside the home.


• Do not lie on concrete floors and do not lean against concrete walls.


• Don't touch electrical equipment or cords. That includes not touching the refrigerator or stove.


• Keep windows and doors closed during electrical storms.

Lifelike Wake

An 80-year-old Puerto Rican woman has been memorialized at her wake sitting in her favorite rocking chair and wearing her old wedding gown.

At a San Juan funeral home, the body of Georgina Chervony Lloren was propped up in her red-cushioned rocking chair Monday and wearing the gown from her second marriage 32 years ago. She was surrounded by plants and flowers.

Her daughter, Miriam Chervony, said her mother specified that this was how she imagined her wake. She died Sunday.

The wake was held at Marin Funeral Home, which is well-known for putting on unusual, thematic wakes. At one wake, a slain boxer was memorialized standing in a makeshift boxing ring. At another, the deceased was propped up on his motorcycle.

10 of the BEST Ugly Cries in 2013

1.  Kim Richards, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Bravo

Former child star Kim Richards’ struggle to get and stay sober has been a big part of the most recent seasons of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. When newer cast member and frequent pot stirrer Brandi Glanville suggested in the Season 3 reunion that Kyle Richards didn’t want her sister to succeed when it came to getting sober, the tears started to flow. Not only did Kyle break down over the accusation, but Kim tried to choke back what were once her signature waterworks on the show as she explained, “I don’t want to hear that anybody would want to see me fail, especially my sister.”

2.  Renee Graziano, Mob Wives

VH1

When her son came to visit her while she was in treatment in Florida, Mob Wivesstar Renee came to the realization that her self-medicating caused him a lot of pain. “To know that you hurt your child and the one person that loves you unconditionally makes me feel like a complete loser,” Renee said in a heartbreaking moment of the VH1 reality series. The cry may not be the prettiest, but Renee’s handling of his confession and his forgiveness are truly beautiful.

3. Eric Northman, True Blood

HBO

Besides the actual physical grossness of Nora’s death (see the crumpled, bloody, hep V-infected body above) in Season 6, Eric’s breakdown wasn’t pretty to watch, especially for such a pretty man who’s usually incredibly in control of his emotions. Eric only let himself lose it for a second after Nora’s death, but his tears quickly turned to anger and more ugliness as he decided to go on a killing spree.

4. Dana Brody, Homeland

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/12/best-tv-gifs-2013/dana-crying-homeland

Showtime via Complex

Carrie Mathison may be regarded as TV’s most famous ugly crier, but she got some competition on her own show in Dana. In the fifth episode of Season 3, Dana found out that her boyfriend Leo lied to her about his brother dying. Then the above happened. No matter how you felt about Dana (or Morgan Saylor), there’s no denying her commitment to this scene. It’s all in the chin. Claire Danes taught her well.

5.  Daryl, The Walking Dead

AMC

Daryl went to save his brother Merle in this Season 3 episode of the AMC zombie drama, only to find out it was too late and he’d already become a walker. “The worst thing that could possibly happen between these two complicated, interesting brothers is that,” The Walking Dead executive producer Gale Anne Hurd said in an AMC interview. And there was nothing left for Daryl to do, but make this face … and kill the flesh-eating shadow of his brother. “His entire heart just breaks right there,” Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl, added in the AMC video. To prepare for the scene, the actor told Entertainment Weekly that he listened to a Willie Nelson song that reminded him of his late father. “I just wanted to break. I just wanted to collapse on the inside,” he told EW. “I just wanted to be crushed in a way you see my heart break.”

6. Teresa Guidice, The Real Housewives of New Jersey

Bravo

Things were never pretty between Teresa Giudice and her brother, Joe Gorga, but their tension reared its ugly head during Season 5 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey during a retreat intended to mend their broken relationship. After a physical fight between the Joes (Teresa’s brother and husband), Dr. V (of Bravo’s LA Shrinks, of course) arrived and sat Teresa and her brother down for a talk. When Teresa said, “We both have families and we want to be together,” her voice started to crack, realizing they’re preventing their children from having the closeness they once shared. Then, they hugged and had a good Gorga ugly cry. But to be fair, it was actually a beautiful moment.

7. Snooki, Dancing With the Stars

ABC

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi managed to show a softer side of herself throughout her impressive run on Dancing With the Stars Season 17. So when she was voted off in Week 7 of the competition — losing out to fan favorite Bill Engvall, who consistently had the lowest judges’ scores — she kind of lost it. Sadly, she was also wearing some heinous makeup, having just performed her zombie-inspired group freestyle. Poor Snooki.

8.  Ashlee White, Princesses: Long Island

Bravo

Bravo

Bravo

Bravo

Bravo

Bravo

An afternoon wine tasting at Sparkling Pointe turned quite bitter when Ashlee brought up the fact that Joey called her funny looking. The conversation escalated to the point of Ashlee saying Joey’s mom was “right about [her]” (a low blow since that’s a complicated relationship), and then she fled to a different area of the vineyard to call her parents. “They were so mean to me,” she sobbed to her mom (later explaining in a confessional that it she felt “like three bulldogs were attacking this Chihuahua. Like this little teacup Yorkie,” with Ashlee being the Chihuahua/Yorkie, of course). Those black mascara tears simply put Lauren Conrad’s (and everyone else’s on this list) to shame.

9. Juliette Barnes, Nashville

ABC

Juliette Barnes may be the hottest (and bitchiest) young thing in country music on ABC’s Nashville, but behind the scenes, she was going through a world of hurt, much of which could be traced back to formative years with a pill-popping mother, Jolene. In the penultimate episode of Season 1, Juliette found Jolene and ex-boyfriend Dante, who’d been threatening to blackmail Juliette with a sex tape, both dead after a murder-suicide. You could feel the pain in her ugly cry as she realized her mom was gone for good.

10. Willy Winger Jr., Community

NBC

In a late Season 4 episode of Community, Jeff finally met his estranged father William and half brother Willy Jr. for a Thanksgiving reunion. Willy was immediately jealous of him, claiming that Jeff was the “Schwarzenegger” to his “DeVito,” and became increasingly angry over how close his dad and half brother were getting. When Britta (Gillian Jacobs) told him to take his aggression out on the dinner rolls, the above happened. And it only got uglier when he threw one of said rolls at his father.