Woman Struck By Lightning While Doing Laundry

[Skywatch_NC]

Woman Struck By Lightning While Doing Laundry

POSTED: 4:35 pm EDT June 9, 2005
UPDATED: 6:32 pm EDT June 9, 2005

EPHRATA, Pa. -- A Pennsylvania woman is recovering after being struck by lightning during a thunderstorm on Monday.

As lightning lit up the sky outside her house, Donna Kulfan figured she was safe in her basement doing laundry.

"I said, 'Just let me throw a load into the washing machine,'' Kulfan said. "As I turned the dial on the machine, the house was struck by lightning."

Kulfan instantly saw a purple glow.

"I could feel a fire going up my arm, across my chest and out the top of my head,'' Kulfan said. "The only way I can describe it -- it felt like someone dropped a piano on my head."

Kulfan then heard her children screaming upstairs. Fearing they were hurt, she managed to make it up the stairs by herself.

"Purple flashes of fire and light were coming out of every socket in the house. The lights there turned off, turned on, instantly,'' Kulfan said.

The microwave glowed purple and popped. Her children were OK, but her daughter quickly realized Kulfan had been struck by lightning.

"I was completely burned. She could see I had burn marks on me. I kept saying I had been hit. I had been hit,'' Kulfan said.

There was no visible damage to the outside of the house, so firefighters don't know where the lightning struck, but they guess it hit the foundation of the house, traveled through pipes, into the washer and right up Kulfan's arm.

"I just know God completely and totally protected me, most importantly protected my children,'' Kulfan said.

Kulfan is still having head and neck pain, but agreed to talk with Lancaster, Pa., television station WGAL in the hope that her story makes others stay away from all appliances during summer storms.

"Truthfully, I never thought of not putting it (the laundry) in. I could've been killed,'' Kulfan said.

Doctors told Kulfan there are no signs of permanent damage and she should consider herself very lucky.

http://www.wral.com/news/4590748/detail.html

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