Too close for comfort
Bass River woman rattled by dramatic lightning strike during recent storm
Driving home late at night through heavy rain and howling winds, Marina Hill didn’t give much thought to the flashes of lightning off in the distance.
But the next strike definitely got her attention.
“I heard the blast and saw the light,” the Bass River resident said, the day after the scariest moment she’s ever experienced.
“I knew it had either hit my vehicle or the pavement,” Hill said, nervous excitement in her voice. “It’s the worst noise one ever heard. I’ve been a basket case all day.”
Hill was passing through the Glenholme area Wednesday night when the lightning blast touched down beside her car.
The noise was so horrific, Hill said, she wasn’t entirely sure it hadn’t struck her vehicle until she looked it over for damage the next day.
“It shakes you up though. It’s a terrible feeling,” she said, of having the lightning strike so close. “I just felt so lucky to be alive.”
Hill is a retired school teacher who taught in Halifax for 28 years, during which time she travelled to Bass River on weekends to visit her parents.
“It is amazing that I drove back and forth for 28 years, not even a flat tire.”
She still travels the roads on a regular basis, taking neighbours to medical appointments and other errands, often arriving home late at night. But even the snow storms she’s endured never left her as shaken as her recent experience.
“Oh, my goodness. It has nothing to compare,” she said.
As a long- standing parishioner at the Baptist church in Bass River, where she also serves as clerk, she recalled an incident several years ago when the steeple was destroyed by lightning while the pastor was giving prayer.
“That was scary but not as bad as this,” she said. “I wouldn’t want anybody to go through that.”