Texas teens injured by lightning in Colorado

[TexasStooge]

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — Two North Texas teens were recovering at a Pueblo hospital after one was knocked unconscious and both suffered burns from a lightning strike in the Spanish Peaks range of southern Colorado.

Zach O’Neal, 15, and Ernie Elbert, 16, both of Aledo, said the lightning hit Sunday.

Ernie said he did cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his friend until he revived.

The two then made their way down the mountain until they met rescuers who were on their way up.

The boys had accompanied O’Neal’s parents to Colorado for the July Fourth holiday and were hiking by themselves.

They called on a cell phone when they reached the summit.

“It was one of the those ‘Hey, Mom, we made it to the top!’ calls,” Zach’s mother, Kelly O’Neal, told the Pueblo Chieftain.

Later, the parents heard thunder, and then Ernie called again to said Zach had been hit.

“You don’t believe it at first,” she said. “We told Ernie to stop kidding us. But then he said that Zach was down and he wasn’t breathing and he was going to try CPR.”

Zach’s father, Scott O’Neal, rushed up the trail on a dirt bike and on foot and met the boys limping down through rain, their clothes in tatters from the lightning.

“It was the worst day and the best day of my life because, seeing him like that, I knew he was hurt, but going up that mountain, I’d thought he was dead,” O’Neal said.

A rescue team then reached the three and carried Zach to a clearing where a helicopter was waiting to take him to the hospital.

Ernie was carried down on an ATV and then taken to the hospital.

“All we can say is thank God Ernie was there to do CPR,” Kelly O’Neal said. “He saved Zach’s life.”

“I don’t think any of this has really sunk in yet,” Scott O’Neal said. “But Zach’s going to have one heck of a story to tell for a 15-year-old.”

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... 15257.html

[Jim Cantore]

I'm 16 and I'm a lightning accident waiting to happen.

[Skywatch_NC]

So very thankful that both boys survived and that Ernie was able to revive his friend!

[TexasStooge]

Teens say faith saved them after lightning strike

By GARY REAVES / WFAA ABC 8

Streaking across the sky at 100 million feet a second, lighting can be a beautiful thing. However, it can also be deadly since a single bolt carries 10 million volts of electricity.

Ernie Elbert and Zach O'Neal experienced the dangers of electricity first-hand after they were struck by lightning while on a Colorado mountain top.

"This is the jacket I had on," O'Neal said while holding the shredded leftovers of his jacket. "[It] melted to my arms. They had to cut it off when I got to the bottom so they could work on me."

O'Neal also has scars from his brush with death. Lighting hit the back of his head and went right through his feet.

"These are the shoes I had on," he said displaying the tattered sneakers. "[It] blew them 5-feet off me. [I] never found my socks."

While O'Neal said he doesn't remember the incident, Elbert said he will never forget.

"It was so loud my ears were ringing for a while," he said. "[It was the] loudest thing I ever heard."

He said he first said a prayer when the bolt struck, and then saw his friend unconscious.

"He wasn't breathing and his lips were moving, so I figured he was alive," he said. "I went over and did CPR, what I could remember of it. I took health in 9th grade."

Around their Aledo homes, signs give credit to the highest power for the teen's survivors. And the teens agree. They said when they didn't have the strength to walk, they prayed and then managed to make it down.

"The odds were against us," O'Neal said. "We both think God was on the mountain with us and helped us get down."