CBS2 Exclusive: Victim Speaks After Being Struck By Lightning In Poughkeepsie Park
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A survivor was sharing her story Monday after a lightning strike left and three others injured – and one person dead – in Poughkeepsie last week.
As CBS2's Brian Conybeare reported exclusively, Karen Brooks was sitting in Mansion Square Park, bounded by Hamilton, Clinton, and Mansion streets in Poughkeepsie, when a large storm cell moved through the area and lightning struck around 4 p.m. Friday.
"I said, 'The storms are dangerous.' I said, 'It's time for me to go,'" Brooks said. "I got up and I was thrown all the way over there."
Brooks and her friends were sitting on a bench under a tree when the severe weather struck.
"My head felt like it was going to blow up," she said.
Brooks was just released from the hospital on Monday. She said the force of the lightning -- up to 1 billion volts according to the National Severe Storm Center -- threw her 20 feet, left burns on her legs and feet and set her purse in fire.
"That's with the lightning did my pocketbook," she said as she displayed a tattered, charred pocketbook.
One of her friends sitting on the bench, whom she calls Richie, was killed.
"He was completely purple in the face and he was not -- he wasn't going to make it. I knew that," Brooks said.
A person's chances of getting hit are one in 240,000, according to the National Weather Service. But on average, 49 people are killed by lightning in the U.S. every year.
"At the first sign of thunder, you should have a healthy respect for electricity and find shelter," said Dr. Gary Neifeld, who heads the emergency room at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie. "The electricity from the lightning bolt is very high voltage for a very short duration and can go directly through the heart and cause cardiac standstill; cardiac arrest."
Three victims were still hospitalized late Monday -- one in critical condition. Brooks said she very easily could not have made it if she had not gotten up to leave.
"I probably wouldn't be here," she said. "I probably wouldn't be here."
Experts said if you see lightning, you should never get under a tree. They said to find an open area and lie down flat on the ground.
