A Fort Worth woman recording a storm on her phone Friday night near her front door said she got a stark reminder about the dangers of being outside while it's lighting.
Zoe Smith said she's always enjoyed capturing nature's beauty and filming lighting. Smith said she's usually pretty conscious of her environment when she does it, but while recording, she started looking around and noticed tall trees, a metal fence, and all the cars parked around her home.
"You don't always realize you nominate yourself for a Darwin award until after the fact," joked Smith, who had a sense of humor about the scary situation.
As she was standing outside, she said she began to feel energy go through her body,
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"But the tingly feelings and the hairs standing on your body on end, like you feel impending doom."
She said she wanted to go inside but knew the door was metal. Seconds later, a bolt of lightning appeared several feet away before her.
"Before I could think of anything else, this boom hit, and I felt my body hit the door behind me, and I don’t know if that was the lightning or if it was my soul trying to leave my body on short notice and was, 'Like screw you, you stupid person.'"
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Texas woman narrowly misses lightning strike
She's unsure what the lighting struck but knows it wasn't her, even though it was a close call.
"It was weird because I got stunned for a second, and my headphones made this like really high-pitched sound when it (the lighting) hit, and I stumble into the house," said Smith.
"You can tell where my priorities were, ‘Like I'm thinking, my headphones just broke,' ' you know not that I just almost died. 'It’s like I’m never going to replace these headphones.'
She said her husband jumped out of his chair because he knew she was outside.
“He thought I got struck, my son thought I got struck, so I stumble into the house, and I sit down in the chair for a second, and you know you're just trying to recalibrate your brain. I looked at my husband and said, ‘I’m going to go lie down; bring me a spoon, a jar of Nutella, and don’t talk to me for half an hour, just complete silence; I need radio silence," said Smith.
The mother and wife have proof on her phone of the storm's power, which she's still trying to process.
"I had just actually done confession with my priest about an hour and a half prior to that, and I'm sitting there like, 'Is this God telling me I didn't confess everything?" said Smith as she chuckled.
She said this experience has made her appreciate life more.
"I’m going to go to church once a week, I’m going to stay in my own lane, I’m not going to bother anybody, I’m going to try to do nice things for people, going to stay out of people's business," said Smith.
The National Weather Service says the odds of being struck by lightning in a year is one out of 1.2 million.
"I had just told somebody 30 minutes prior to that buying lotto tickets is stupid, and then I almost got struck by lightning; that was ironic," laughed Smith.
She said her son also reminded her of the lessons she has taught him all his life. Smith said he actually wanted to come outside with her, but she said no.
"And even my son, when I came in, he was like, ‘Mom, you were always telling me not to go outside during a lightning storm, and now you almost got struck by lightning; how do you feel about that?' And I’m looking at him like, ‘Who are you talking to?’ Haha, you know, was right," acknowledged Smith.
“The only warning I had was just a couple of seconds of that tingly feeling and realizing I can't even turn around I would be touching metal. It just happened to not strike me. It’s like, I even got rejected by lightning, you know. My husband is like, ‘So even the lightning didn’t want you?' I was like, 'Yeah, I guess you’re stuck with me," joked Smith.
Smith said this is a reminder to heed the warnings, which she knows too, but she just got comfortable because nothing has ever happened.
“You do learn a healthy respect for very beautiful but very dangerous thing that God created," said Smith. “(I'm) Here by for the grace of God.”
Smith referenced her neighbor, the graveyard, and how that could have been her fate that evening.
"It was a learning experience, and it could have been my last one. Like we live right next to a graveyard, and I’m like, 'That would have been me over there, just put a lightning bolt symbol on the gravestone," joked Smith, who is grateful that wasn't her ending.
