Time hasn’t healed memory of lightning

MOSCOW – A pair of green khaki shorts with the zipper fused together, a charred underwire bra and a torn tank top sit in Julia Williams’ apartment.

She keeps them as a physical reminder of being “splashed” by lightning over the summer.

The first- and second-degree burns along portions of her body are mostly healed. Her ruptured eardrum also is expected to heal.

The memory of the event, however, still resonates in Williams’mind.

The 22-year-old University of Idaho senior was splashed during an August hike in the Grand Canyon on a Golden Key Honors Club trip.

“The storm came in pretty fast,” she said.

Williams made the mistake of taking cover under one of the few trees along the canyon edge where she was hiking. Lightning struck the tree, and then “splashed” onto Williams.

“I went down; I was unconscious,” she said. Thomas Proffer of Flint, Mich., and Tracy McGill of Mesa, Ariz., were headed back to a nearby rail station for cover as it continued to rain and hail. They were about 100 feet from the tree Williams was under when they heard lightning crack.

“I saw the lightning hit the tree; as we got closer I saw Julia’s backpack there beside the tree,” Proffer said. “Then I saw her feet. She was so close to going over the side (of the canyon).”

Williams said Proffer and McGill were yelling and screaming, trying to get her to sit up.

“I had no muscle strength; my legs felt like your feet feel when you are asleep,” she said. “My face was planted in 5 inches of dirt, my first breath of air was dirt,” Williams said.

“I could smell the smoking tree and Julia’s scorched clothes,” Proffer added. “I started to pray as I watched Julia’s right side of her head, ear and neck turn dark (from the burns).”

The lightning entered through Williams ear, rupturing her eardrum. It went through her earring and down her tank top, burned through the underwire on her bra, then traveled down her stomach to the button and zipper on her shorts, which was welded shut.

Paramedics arrived, and after rides in three different ambulances, Williams was admitted to the emergency room in Flagstaff, Ariz.

“When I came to, I was kind of embarrassed. I know you shouldn’t stand under a tree during a lightning storm; I didn’t want to tell people what had happened,” she said.

It took Williams four hours to get warm, and the doctor told her she could have died of hypothermia.

“The splash was why I didn’t suffer major consequences; to come out the way I did was pretty lucky,” she said.

“My brother asked me if I would buy him a lottery ticket,” she said. “During the last lightning storm, my friends called me to make sure I was inside.”