RAINBOWS & LIGHTNING

These pictures are illustrative of a monsoon season weather pattern here at the Grand Canyon. We often get rain and sunshine at the same time, and that's a recipe for the creation of rainbows. I took these two pictures from Mohave Point day before yesterday, while driving a bus on the Hermits Road Red Route. It wasn't long after, when the lightning began to strike close by. When that happens, our first priority is to provide shelter, then move as many people as possible back to the village. The rain often comes in buckets, but it's the lightning that presents a real danger to the public who are out in the open.

Yesterday, I was driving a bus on the Village Blue route, when all of a sudden, several emergency vehicles passed me near the Bright Angel Lodge, and with lights flashing, and sirens blaring, they disappeared up the Hermits Road. At about this same time, there was a serious thunder and lightning show going on, and the Red Route buses were concentrating on getting people back to the village. It wasn't but a few minutes later, when one of the supervisors reported on the radio that several people had been struck by lightning near Mohave Point.

After hearing the radio report, I thought to myself, this is something that you read about, not something that happens in your backyard. When my shift was over, and I had parked the bus, I asked the supervisor for details of the incident. Sadly, she reported that a 65 year old man was fatally injured by the lightning strike, and 5 others in his group were taken by ambulance to the clinic. She did not know the condition of the 5 individuals, other than the injuries they sustained were not life threatening.

I'm sure we've all heard phrases like "the chances of that happening are less than being struck by lightning". Unfortunately, yesterday, one individuals odds were not very favorable, and the danger of being out in the open during a thunderstorm became very real for me.