VERSAILLES, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Woodford County man wants other people to learn from his unbelievable experience. He was working in his yard when lightning struck. Remarkably, he's back home and sharing his story.
As storms rolled through Central Kentucky Saturday morning, Doug Estep was trying to stop his basement from flooding.
"I noticed that the gutters were gushing, so I come in, went right outside, grabbed the umbrella, went and cleared it out, come back, wasn't good enough, went back again," he said.
As he considered going back in the storm a third time, he hesitated, but pushed on. In just seconds, he regretted it.
"The flash, and when I come to, the rain beating me in the face," he said.
Lightning had struck the tree in Estep's front yard, just feet from him. The bolt, he said, jumped from the tree, straight into him, throwing him against his house.
"Just jumped straight up and said, 'Oh my God, I lived!' That was my first words, 'I just lived'," Estep said.
Estep said he was searching for an exit wound, but couldn't find anything. He said he felt mostly okay.
"Just a tingling. I guess maybe the electricity was still running through me," he said.
He also wasn't sure what might come next.
"Just everything running through my mind. Am I fixing to die? Am I fixing to have a heart attack?" he said.
An ambulance took Estep to UK Hospital to be checked out. He said doctors told him they'll keep an eye on his heart, but cleared him to come on home.
Estep knows how lucky he is to have survived an incident like this. In fact, he said he's been haunted by what could have been.
"It haunts me every morning when I get up and go to work. I go to the gym at 4:00 in the morning and I'm out here by myself the last two mornings and it bothers me. I get cold chills just waiting on that flash," he said.
Estep wants to be sure no one else puts themselves in the same situation. He sure won't.
"No more of that. I'll never do it again. That's what I would say to everybody. Don't. Don't even think about it, because it can happen. It happened so fast," he said.
