Epic Lightning Story
by Mikayla the Friend
Oregon City, OR
At Lake Billy Chinook, in the summer of 2008, there was the oddest weather I have seen there. I have been camping there all my life; fourteen years, every summer. Lake Billy Chinook is a lake in the middle of the desert but we camp far above the water at the campground called Crooked River Camp. We always go camping with our family friends the Martens. That year we had a camping site that was on the edge of the campground so behind was an enormous view of cactus, dry bushes, and desert. Also, there was a power line that ran behind us and about 50 meters away was a transformer.
Well, that year my friends, Katie and Kayla Martens, and I decided that we would get spiritual just because we had mysterious things have happen to us there before. While we were being “goofy” I decided to do a “lightning dance”, which called for lightning storms. Strange enough, every time I did the “lightning dance” it worked every time I did it. Even the parents asked me not to the “lightning dance” anymore because it worked. They were tired of the extreme weather.
The first time I did my “lightning dance” the biggest storm out of all of them came. When the lightning came we had the Martens and our family come in our trailer because we didn’t want anyone getting struck by lightning. While we were in the trailer, the lightning storm was working its way over us. When it started to get really scary we turned on a movie for the kids but later on the lightning started making the movie blink so we had to turn it off and unplug the trailer in case a surge went through the power. While the thunder started to get louder the little kids were getting very scared. It was funny though because the parents kept telling them it was God moving furniture. As the lightning started to come overhead one struck, out in the desert field behind us and was followed by an earsplitting echoing crack. A few seconds later was the best part. All of a sudden there was the loudest crack out of all of them. While we were looking outside, the lightning had struck the pole only about twenty-five meters away from our trailer. Sizzled down the lines and blew out the transformer. The event kind of reminded me of the movie War of the Worlds.
