The Image of a Storm
Author
Ronnie Coleinger
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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Copyright © [Ronnie Coleinger, pseudo.] 2011
Illustration copyright © [Ronnie Coleinger, pseudo.] 2011
http://www.ronniecoleinger.com
The Image of a Storm
As I watched the ball of lightning bounce from apple tree to apple tree across my orchard, I suddenly realized that it might continue bouncing directly towards the huge picture window where I was standing.
I had been watching the storm move in from the west and soon realized that the warning sirens just down the street had begun to sound. The noise was deafening for a moment as the huge horns slowly rotated on top of the tall metal poles and blasted the warning sound directly towards my house. I covered my ears to protect my eardrums, but nothing seemed able to muffle the sound.
While I stood there protecting my ears, a bolt of lightning struck the top of the tall pole that supported the siren. It quickly formed a ball of sizzling white-hot electricity about ten inches in diameter. It looked like something right out of a Frankenstein movie as it shot tiny fingers of energy into the air. I shielded my eyes from the light, but the beauty of the wobbling ball of fire mesmerized me. Suddenly, the ball jumped down off the metal pole and rolled across the grass about twenty feet towards one of my apple trees. It climbed up the trunk and bounced around in the branches for just a moment or two before jumping to a second tree. This time the ball of lightning split into two balls and rolled down opposite sides of the tree truck towards the ground. Once on the ground, the ball reformed into one seething mass and began bouncing and weaving across my lawn towards my house.
It was then that I realized I was in serious danger, but for some reason, my body seemed unable to move. I could not force myself to move away from the window, away from this molten ball of fire that Mother Nature had provided to show me her power. I understood that this lightning might severely injure or even kill me, but I was transfixed to the spot where I stood.
Suddenly, I saw the lightning rolling towards the porch and watched it bounce a few times on the steps. It seemed as if it was playing, dancing, trying to impress me as a child might do. It moved in one quick leap straight for the double sliding glass doors, but bounced off as if the glass was a trampoline. I jumped back away from the glass doors and placed my back against the living room wall where I felt protected, but could still see outside. The ball had now turned into a bright orange glowing ball instead of the white sizzling mass as it had begun its life. I watched the ball slowly bouncing around on the wooden porch; it seemed unsure where it wanted to go next, but I suspected it was looking for a good ground. As I watched, the lightning found the path it was searching for and jumped to the receptacle on the porch wall. I heard an incredible sizzling sound as it followed the electrical wiring and moved into the house with me.
I saw the lamp that I had plugged into one of the living room outlets explode right before my eyes. The bulb literally melted and dripped onto the table below the lamp. The cord melted away and left a smoldering trail of molted copper and ash on the carpet. I could hear the sounds of other things in my house exploding and sizzling. Then I heard an incredibly loud snapping, popping sound in the basement. I quickly grabbed the flashlight and headed down to see what had caused the explosion. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I realized that there was a lot of smoke in the air, but my smoke detectors were not ringing. I shined the flashlight towards the furnace and saw to my horror, a red-hot smoldering transformer. I quickly moved towards the electric water heater and saw the melted power cord still smoking. There did not seem to be any flames, just hot melted copper and insulation. I moved into the last room along the south wall where the electrical breaker panel was located and realized that there was a small fire burning on the concrete floor. I put out the flames with my shoe, but the smell of the fire damaged electrical panel was awful, so I quickly headed back up the stairs to the kitchen.
I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911 to get the fire department here before my house burned to the ground. I could not see any active burning fires, but knew that the lightning had followed the wiring and probably had burned the wires in the walls and attic. At this point, I feared that I should stay near an exit in case the attic caught fire. The acrid smell of burning electrical wiring was becoming overpowering. I did not want to go outside into the storm, but knew that I should not continue to breathe the smoke. I grabbed my laptop and car keys and headed out to the carport to my truck. When I had the engine running, I pulled the truck out onto the street where it would be out of the way from the fire trucks and waited for help to arrive.
I had only sat a few moments when I heard the first sounds of sirens coming down the street. As I saw the flashing lights approaching my house, I stepped out of the truck and waved to the firemen to let them know where the fire was located. The fire chief quickly jumped down off the truck and began talking to me. Then the firemen grabbed lights, axes, and fire extinguishers. Once they had entered the house, I heard the fire chief call on his radio for the men who remained outside to bring in portable lighting and fans.
As I stood watching and listening to the firemen working, the utility company arrived and quickly shut off the power at the transformer on the utility pole. It was now getting dark. The lineman shined his large lights at the mast bolted to my house where the power wires connected. It was then that I realized the wires had melted. It looked as if the insulation had gotten so hot that it had dripped to the ground and left nothing but bare copper wire. I stood there considering what had taken place during the few moments in time when the ball of lighting entered my house and realized that my house surely should have burned to the ground.
The fire chief allowed me to enter the house with him to survey the damage. When I stepped into the kitchen, I realized that the walls had black burned patches every place there was an outlet or switch. We continued into the living room and I saw the same thing. I spotted the lamp that had melted away while I watched and then saw that the screen on the LCD television had literally melted and run down onto the tabletop. When I walked into the dining room, I spotted a huge hole in the ceiling. The firemen had chopped the hole with their axes to gain access to the attic to put out an active fire they had discovered. My house was a mess, but the firemen had managed to find all the hot spots. Without their aggressive searching, my house might have burned later tonight from hot spots in the attic and kitchen walls.
**************
I packed a bag and spent the night at the local hotel. I might have gotten twenty minutes of sleep that night. The sight of my lamp melting on the table kept playing back into my mind. I would sleep for a few seconds and then find myself startled awake by the lighting ball jumping around. However, I felt comforted by the knowledge that I could salvage my house.
Just before noon the following morning, I met my insurance adjuster at the house. When he walked inside, he just stood there looking at the melted television screen. When he turned to face me he said, “You are very lucky my friend. This house should be a smoldering pile of ash right now.” As we used our flashlights to inspect the basement, I realized how badly the lightning had damaged the electrical breaker panel. The firemen had removed the cover right after the utility company disconnected the power. What I saw startled me. The breakers were completely destroyed inside the panel. The plastic cases had melted away and left just the metal components visible. The copper bus bars had partly melted and the molten metal had pooled in the bottom of the panel. All the wires leading into the panel had melted and the fire had badly burned the wall behind it. I used my knife blade to probe the plywood that the panel was mounted on and realized the fire had burned almost completely through the three quarter inch thick board.
As I shined my light around the room, I was again startled when I saw the wall on the opposite side of the room from the electrical panel. I had painted the wall white a few months ago. Now, the wall had an image burned into it. I spoke to the insurance adjuster and he turned to look at what I was seeing. I heard him take a deep breath and then slowly exhale. He did not speak for a moment or two, but then said, “I need a picture of this.” As we stood taking pictures of the wall, I considered what I was looking at and how it had formed. On the white wall was a perfectly etched image of the electrical panel. The image showed all the breakers, the screws holding the cover in place, and all the wires leading into the panel. It was as if someone had created a picture negative of the electrical panel before it exploded and pasted it on the wall. I could read the amperage ratings printed on the breaker handles on the wall. I could also read a warning label that warned the user that only qualified personnel should remove the cover for service.
As I stood staring at the image, I tried to comprehend what forces would be required to create such a thing. When my engineering degree did not seem to offer any assistance in my quest for knowledge in this matter, I considered the creation of the wonderful universe we live in. I knew that somewhere among all of the great physicists equations laid the answer to this phenomenon. As I considered how to preserve the image, I came upon the idea to remove the drywall and take it to my sister’s house for temporary storage. I retrieved a knife from the garage and began cutting the drywall. Once it was free, I carried it upstairs into the daylight. I sat it down alongside my truck and stood back to see the image in the light of day. What I saw brought a smile to my face. The white drywall was blank, only slightly smoke discolored by the explosion. I considered what I was seeing for a moment and then carried the drywall into the darkened garage and shut the door. When I turned on the flashlight, the image returned. I opened the door to allow some sunlight into the garage and the image disappeared. It was then that I realized that the image was only visible under certain wavelengths of light.
I stood there looking at the drywall when my neighbor walked up to see how I was doing after the fire. I laughed as we talked and said, “My friend, I have something incredible to show you.” He laughed and said, “Yes, I can see. You have a piece of drywall with some smoke marks on the white paint, and it’s a real beauty.” I chuckled at his sarcasm, shut the garage door so we were standing in the dark, and snapped on the flashlight. I heard the breath leave his lungs as the image of the electrical panel appeared on the drywall in front of him. Then I opened the garage door and turned off the flashlight. When I looked at him, he opened his mouth to speak, but closed it and returned his gaze to the smoky white drywall. Finally, he looked into my eyes and said, “I believe the forces of nature can perform feats that we mortals find incomprehensible.”
Later that week the contractors began the task of determining how extensive the damage to my home really was. They determined that the drywall and ceiling needed to come down so they could rewire it and have new copper plumbing lines installed. There were places where the solder had partly melted out of the copper plumbing fittings and they now seeped water. I rented a large truck from the company I worked for and loaded all my belongings that were salvageable into the truck and took them to the neighbor’s pole barn for storage. Everything electrical that had power applied to it or plugged in when the lightning stuck was ruined. My laptop computer remained undamaged only because I had unplugged it and put it inside my briefcase earlier that day.
Within a week after the storm, the leaves on the three apple trees began to shrivel up and fall to the ground. Within a month, both trees appeared to be dead. I waited until the following spring to see if they would recover from the lightning, but all three were dead. I find it difficult to comprehend the incredible power of lightning, but I now have a newfound respect for its ability to do unimaginable damage. When the next large storm appears in the western sky, I intend to move to my underground storm shelter and remain there until the storm passes. Call me crazy if you like, but I intend to hide from Mother Nature’s anger in the future.