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Florida woman accidentally captures intense lightning video

Posted at 11:18 AM, May 07, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-07 12:18:58-04

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Talk about a chance encounter with Mother Nature. A Florida woman captured dramatic lightning on video Sunday evening right outside her bedroom window.

“I just kind of jumped back and was like 'oh my gosh,' ” Erica Hite said.

Hite was just wanting to show her family the rain outside her home when she instead captured something much more intense.

“My parents wanted me to go to dinner and it was raining really bad outside and I guess they didn’t believe me because it had stopped raining in Boca and I was going to take a video that it was still raining outside,” said Hite.

Luckily no one was hurt. However, it did leave some damage.

“I came into the garbage house and that’s the first thing I saw, it blew out the cement which was top of the garbage house,” said resident David Lindenbaum.

At 81 years old, Lindenbaum describes it as the loudest thing he’s ever heard.

“As soon as it hit, I knew it was so close, my cat was on my lap and the next thing I know she was in my closet disappeared we didn’t see her for hours,” said Lindenbaum.

As for the video that’s now gone viral, it serves as a good reminder to stay safe.

“A good lesson when it’s storming out and you have thunderstorm warnings to take it seriously,” said Hite.

Florida leads the nation for lightning strike deaths and there are more than 1.2 million lightning strikes every year across the state.