feet away from where it was originally installed. i don t it just went sailing through the air and landed over in the grass. and i had to look, search around to find it. it just completely crisped all the wiring. not wanting to keep this once in a lifetime sight to themselves, rita decides to share her video online. i just thought it would be a really great way for all of my friends to see, and just what a coincidence it was that it just happened to blow up, you know, right behind that spot. i thought, oh my gosh i have to put this on youtube. what are the chances of catching a lightning strike, you know? rita s audience expands quickly beyond just her friends. the video goes viral garnering more than 3 million hits. despite all the attention, she and her husband won t try to repeat their up close and personal encounter with a lightning strike.
winds are whipping and sheets of rain are pelting the enclosure. rita tries to record all the action. i was panning across the backyard. as i was doing that, i could see in the background the trees were just really bending over from the wind. and i thought, okay, i m going to pan back over there so that i can maybe catch this tree, you know, really bending. watch this tree. it will start getting real windy in just a second. rita doesn t know just how spot-on her camerawork is about to be. oh an explosion of thunder and lightning sends rita scrambling for cover. it s, like, boom. i jumped in the house. my camera goes flailing around, and, you know, my mouth shouted out. oh [ muted ] it was so instantaneous that my body felt like the bass of a woofer. it s not like anything i ve ever felt.
what you saw on film is one thing. multiply that tenfold, get an idea what it felt like as a witness. something we weren t expecting. almost simultaneously, a ball of flames bursts up from where the lightning strikes down. in my recollection of things, there were two events. one was a lightning strike, and the second was the fireball. they were probably separated by a time measure that i can t even comprehend. it lit the whole screen up. my next thought was, where s the dog? there are some things in this world that would cause other dogs to skitter underneath the sofa. march just went on point and looked at it. she s an amazing little pooch. rita and nick don t realize how close the lightning strike was to where they were just standing. they wait until the storm ends and then head out beyond their backyard in search of the site of impact. and we couldn t find anything
i have never seen a lightning strike this close to me. this experience has it has changed the way i view these things. i m not quite as brave as i used to be. i love it. rita, she s probably going to continue recording all these things, but maybe stand a little further inside the house when she does. oh [ muted ] go. get on out. when nature strikes, it strikes fast. in this 2013 youtube video, a west point cadet is seen releasing a mouse that has taken up residence in his room. all right, buddy.
that was building was stronger than what we frequently see around here. the rainfall was really good. winds are whipping and sheets of rain are pelting the enclosure. rita tries to record all the action. i was panning across the backyard. as i was doing that, i could see in the background the trees were just really bending over from the wind. and i thought, okay, i m going to pan back over there so that i can maybe catch this tree, you know, really bending. watch this tree. it will start getting real windy in just a second. rita doesn t know just how spot-on her camerawork is about to be. oh an explosion of thunder and lightning sends rita scrambling for cover. it s, like, boom. i jumped in the house. my camera goes flailing around, and, you know, my mouth shouted out. oh [ muted ] it was so instantaneous that my body felt like the bass of a