Shocking bathroom moment: Lightning strike blows up shower
Another reason not to shower when it’s storming: Lightning traveled through an outside wall into the shower, blowing tiles off.
You may have heard someone tell you not to shower during a thunderstorm. This Florida home has the proof to show why that’s true.
A lightning safety expert recently told AccuWeather that it's dangerous to take a shower during a thunderstorm, because water conducts electricity. Here's another reason — you could be injured by flying debris.
An insurance adjuster in Cape Coral, Florida, recently filmed heavy damage in a bathroom due to a lightning strike. "I’m a public adjuster, which means I help out people with their insurance claims. This video was taken at a client’s home that had been struck by lightning," said the adjuster.
Showering during a thunderstorm is potentially deadly, John Jensenius of the National Lightning Safety Council, said. Both Jensenius and the CDC warn against using any plumbing during a thunderstorm. "If lightning strikes your home," Jensenius explained, "it typically follows either the wires or the plumbing." That means taking a shower, washing dishes or even running water from the tap can put you in harm’s way. Even non-metal pipes can conduct electricity through the water itself.
Lightning damage to a home in Cape Coral, Florida. (Newsflare via Reuters Connect)
A burn mark indicated that lightning hit the Cape Coral homeowner's fence and traveled into the bathroom through the wall, exploding the shower and sending shrapnel to the other side, in one case knocking a hole in the shower wall.
The homeowner was lucky to be uninjured.
"She always takes a shower when she gets home from work, but today she decided not to," the adjuster said.
This is an example of what lightning can do as it tries to find the most efficient route to the ground. As it burns through walls, it can explode stone, wood, or other building materials. It happened to my house in 1987 as lightning sought out our water pump to our well. In this case, the plumbing wasn't what the lightning traveled through, at least until after it exploded the shower, but the eventual goal likely was a well or water pump.
While an exploding shower may be rare, it's another example of why you don't want to bathe during a thunderstorm.
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