Dramatic Video Shows Friends Caught in Lightning Strike on Australian Bay
Two men narrowly avoided a lightning strike while filming a storm in Australia.
— -- The life of a storm chaser can be equal parts thrilling and terrifying, proven by a video out of Sydney, Australia, that shows lightning strike a little too close for comfort for two friends filming the event.
Nick Panayiotou and Daniel Dudman were filming a severe thunderstorm in a boathouse on Oyster Bay when a flash of lightning lit up the sky.
“Dude, don’t go outside,” one of the friends said to the other just before the lightning hit.
Panayiotou and Dudman were planning to take their boat into the bay, but decided against it at the last minute, they told 7News in Sydney. Then, the lightning hit.
“Oh, my god,” one of the startled men shouted amid the deafening sounds of thunder.
Neither Panayiotou nor Dudman were hurt, but they could feel the static charge from the lightning from inside the boathouse, they said.
“That, I reckon, is the scariest thing,” Panayiotou said, adding that the thunder was so loud it “hurt” to hear it.
Australia was hit with thousands of lightning strikes over the weekend that left more than 50,000 homes and businesses without power, 7News reported.
"It's unbelievable how lucky we are," Panayiotou told 7News.