The odds of being struck by lightning in one year the US is 1 in 700,000 and the odds of getting struck by lightning in your entire lifetime are 1 in 3,000. Being struck by lightning can cause cardiac arrest or it can just straight up kill you. Injuries from lightning can be anything from burns, to memory loss, brain damage, and/or personality change. 10% of people struck by lightning are killed and 70% suffer long term effects-- 400 people survive being struck a year in the US.
Roy Sullivan was born in Virginia in 1912 and was the fourth of eleven children. Growing up in the Blue Ridge mountains and familiarized with the area, Sullivan joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and helped build what would become the Shenandoah National Park, where he worked as a park ranger from 1936 until his retirement in (?).
Roy Sullivan literally looked almost exactly like Gene Hackman and that’s mentioned in the wiki article i read and i need you to see the resemblance, too.
While working at the National park Sullivan was struck by lightning SEVEN times.
via allthatsinteresting.com
The first lightning strike occurred in April 1942. He was hiding from a thunderstorm in a fire lookout tower. The tower was newly built and had no lightning rod at the time; it was hit seven or eight times. Inside the tower, “fire was jumping all over the place”. Sullivan ran out and just a few feet away received what he considered to be his worst lightning strike. It burned a half-inch strip all along his right leg, hit his toe, and left a hole in his shoe.
He was hit again in July 1969. Unusually, he was hit while in his truck, driving on a mountain road—the metal body of a vehicle normally protects people in cases such as this by acting as a Faraday cage. The lightning first hit nearby trees and was deflected into the open window of the truck. The strike knocked Sullivan unconscious and burned off his eyebrows and eyelashes, and set his hair on fire. The uncontrolled truck kept moving until it stopped near a cliff edge.
In July 1970, Sullivan was struck while in his front yard. The lightning hit a nearby power transformer and from there jumped to his left shoulder, burning it.
In spring 1972, Sullivan was working inside a ranger station in Shenandoah National Park when another strike occurred. It set his hair on fire; he tried to smother the flames with his jacket. He then rushed to the restroom, but couldn’t fit under the water tap and so used a wet towel instead. Although he never was a fearful man, after the fourth strike he began to believe that some force was trying to destroy him and he acquired a fear of death. For months, whenever he was caught in a storm while driving his truck, he would pull over and lie down on the front seat until the storm passed. He also began to believe that he would somehow attract lightning even if he stood in a crowd of people, and carried a can of water with him in case his hair was set on fire.
via Wikipedia
On August 7, 1973, while he was out on patrol in the park, Sullivan saw a storm cloud forming and drove away quickly. But the cloud, he said later, seemed to be following him. When he finally thought he had outrun it, he decided it was safe to leave his truck. Soon after, he was struck by a lightning bolt. Sullivan stated that he actually saw the bolt that hit him. The lightning moved down his left arm and left leg and knocked off his shoe. It then crossed over to his right leg just below the knee. Still conscious, Sullivan crawled to his truck and poured the can of water, which he always kept there, over his head, which was on fire.
The next strike, on June 5, 1976, injured his ankle. It was reported that he saw a cloud, thought that it was following him, tried to run away, but was struck anyway. His hair also caught fire. On Saturday morning, June 25, 1977, Sullivan was struck while fishing in a freshwater pool. The lightning hit the top of his head, set his hair on fire, traveled down, and burnt his chest and stomach. Sullivan turned to his car when something unexpected occurred — a bear approached the pond and tried to steal trout from his fishing line. Sullivan had the strength and courage to strike the bear with a tree branch. He claimed that this was the twenty-second time he hit a bear with a stick in his lifetime.
All seven of these lightning strikes were reported by the Shenedoah superintendent.
Apparently, Sullivan’s wife was also struck by lightning one time when she was hanging clothes out to dry- Sullivan made it out safely.
Because Sullivan was struck so many times by lightning, people were afraid to be around him because he was such bad luck and were worried they’d get struck by lightning too and in his older age it really started to bum him out. Sullivan once said, “For instance, I was walking with the Chief Ranger one day when lightning struck way off. The Chief said, ‘ll see you later.’”
Sullivan died at the age of 71 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1983 while lying in bed next to his wife (30 years younger)-- who didn’t notice for a couple of hours..
A mystery perhaps?
Roy Sullivan is in the Guinness Book of World Records for Most Lightning Strikes Survived. The odds of getting struck by lightning 7 times in your life are 100 nonillion. Thats 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. A one with 32 zeros behind it.
Sources: National Geographic, allthatsinteresting.com. Mental Floss, Guinness World Records, Wikipedia