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Saskatchewan woman survives lightning strike for second time in 20 years

Saskatchewan woman survives lightning strike for second time in 20 years

A woman in Saskatchewan might be feeling targeted by Zeus after surviving what she says is her second strike by lightning.

Shelley Kessel told the Canadian Press she was driving when she met a thunderstorm on her way to Regina on Tuesday. Like the moment of terror in an old film, she said a bright flash of light lit up her car and then she smelled burning.

[ Related: Saskatchewan woman survives second lightning strike in 20 years ]

The car lights began to flash, the horn honked and the trunk popped open, the news wire reported. But she had survived. Kessel said her last encounter with lightning happened 20 years ago when it struck her farmhouse.

In other jolting news, a group of 23 Boy Scouts in Belmont, New Hampshire was hospitalized this week after a lightning bolt hit the area near their shelter, according to NBC. The scouts and leaders said they were feeling tingly but otherwise not seriously injured.

Lightning strokes cause about 10 deaths each year in Canada and about 164 injuries, according to estimates by Environment Canada.

The technical director of the online news outlet Ars Technica recently described his experience of being hit by lightning, saying emergency responders asked repeatedly if he had been any wearing shoes. But National Geographic reports the rubber soles on shoes won't save you from millions of volts of electricity.

Something saved U.S. park ranger Roy Sullivan, who achieved the status of legend after he was hit by lightning seven times. The Lakeland Ledger reported in 1972 that Sullivan lost most of his hair when lightning lit it on fire. He was on duty at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia at the time. That was his fourth hit, and three more followed.

[ Related: Fishing tops List of lightning death causes ]

A New York Times obituary says Sullivan died at the age of 71 in 1983, of a gun shot wound, which was reportedly self-inflicted.