
MARY REICHARD, HOST: Thunder and lightning rattled outside Marylou Ward’s house in Port Charlotte, Florida.
But it was a noise inside her home that got her attention.
She told the local TV station WINK:
AUDIO: It was the loudest noise I’ve ever heard. It just went boom!
That wasn’t all. Smoke filled the air and so she ran to check it out.
AUDIO: We came in here and the toilet was laying on the floor. It was all — pieces everywhere, pieces everywhere.
Sure enough, lightning had struck her septic tank, and the rest of this story is the chain reaction that followed!
Here’s what happened: The lightning strike ignited methane gas lingering in the tank. That rapid combustion sent the blast up through the plumbing. Which led to the toilet and then … well, she says it best:
AUDIO: Boom.
Boom! Just goes to show: Lightning may strike only once, but at least in this case, it did produce a domino effect.
Happily, no one was hurt.
It’s The World and Everything in It.