A Kentucky man was struck lightning Saturday morning and lived to tell about it, according to a report by Sean Moody of LEX 18. Now he wants others to learn from his experience.
Doug Estep said he was working in his yard in Woodford County as storms rolled in Saturday morning. He said he was trying to stop his basement from flooding.
"I noticed that the gutters were gushing, so I come in, went right outside, grabbed the umbrella, went and cleared it out, come back, wasn't good enough, went back in," he said.
When he went back out the third time, he instantly regretted it. He said he was struck by lightning -- but all he remembers is, "the flash, and when I come to, he rain beating my face."
Estep said lightning first struck the tree in his front yard, just feet away from him. He said the bolt then jumped from the tree to him, throwing him against his house.
When he woke up, Estep said he, 'just jumped straight up and said, 'Oh my God, I lived!' That was my first words. 'I just lived!'"
He said he searched for an exit wound, but he didn't find anything. He said he felt mostly okay.
"Just a tingling," he said. "I guess maybe the electricity was still running through me."
But he didn't know if he was in the clear.
"Just everything running through my mind:Â Am I fixing to die? Am I fixing to have a heart attack?" he said.
An ambulance took him to the hospital to get checked out. Doctors said they'd keep an eye on his heart, but cleared him to come home.
Estep said he knows how fortunate he is to have survived an incident like this. In fact, he said he's been haunted by what could have been.
"It haunts me every morning when I get up and go to work," he said. "I got to the gym at 4 in the morning and I'm out here by myself the last two mornings and it bothers me. I get cold chills just waiting on that flash."
Estep is warning everyone not to put themselves in a similar situation.
"No more of that," he said. "I'll never do it again. That's what I would say to everybody. Don't. Don't even think about it, because it can happen. It happened so fast."
