Alabama teen struck by lightning while scrolling on her phone inside: ‘I’m lucky to be alive’
The 19-year-old says she felt a jolt through her arm and was told she’s lucky the shock didn’t reach her heart.
With lightning safety awareness week underway, AccuWeather’s Ariella Scalese provides a few tips on how to stay safe amid lightning.
A 19-year-old Alabama woman is recovering after being struck by lightning while using her phone during a Sunday night storm in Russellville.
Lisa Henderson said she was scrolling Instagram on her plugged-in phone when it happened. “I heard the lightning strike, and then I heard a loud pop, and all I heard was ringing in my ear,” she told News 19 in Alabama.
Henderson said she felt a jolt of electricity shoot from her fingers up her arm. “It felt like I stuck a fork in a light socket,” she said. “After that, I couldn’t comprehend things, and I started crying for five minutes.”
She said she instinctively threw the phone across the room, which she believes helped lessen the impact. “If I would’ve kept it, I could’ve been electrocuted even more than I was,” she told the station.
Henderson was taken to the hospital, where doctors told her she was lucky the shock didn’t reach her heart. She was released the next day with soreness in her wrist, arm and chest.
Using any appliance plugged in during a thunderstorm is dangerous, John Jensenius of the National Lightning Safety Council, told AccuWeather. "If lightning strikes your home," Jensenius explained, "it typically follows either the wires or the plumbing."
"Cell phones are safe as long as they’re not plugged into the wall," Jensenius said. The danger comes from corded phones or mobile devices being actively charged during a storm. If your phone is charging and you're holding it when lightning hits, you're connected to your home’s electrical system—putting you at risk.
Taking a shower, washing dishes or even running water from the tap can also put you in harm’s way. Even non-metal pipes can conduct electricity through the water itself. An insurance adjuster in Cape Coral, Florida, recently filmed heavy damage in a bathroom due to a lightning strike.
According to the National Lightning Safety Council, the odds of being struck in a given year are about 1 in 1.6 million.
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