Lightning Strike Drops Live Wire On Road

BROOKSVILLE - A brilliant lightning strike that sent fire down the power lines fried a traffic signal at Powell Road and Broad Street on Tuesday afternoon and tied up traffic for more than two hours.

Frank Rosselli witnessed Mother Nature's power from behind the cash register at the Sunoco gas station that sits on the corner of the intersection.

In a flash, one of the tall metal poles that anchor the traffic lights was struck and fire raced down the power lines, said Rosselli, 65.

"It lit the whole area," he said.

He likened the immediate thunderclap to the roar of artillery he heard in the U.S. Navy.

The lightning strike, around 2:20 p.m., apparently dropped a live wire across the northbound lanes and partially into the southbound lanes. Motorists said first responders were quick to arrive and stop traffic from passing over the line. The steel line was hard to see on the gray road top still slick from the passing showers.

A spokeswoman for Progress Energy Cooperative said power was disrupted for about 1,200 customers and was restored after 45 minutes.

June Weber was southbound on Broad Street and had just passed Gateway Furniture when she saw a blinding flash up ahead.

"It was like someone taking a picture of you," she said.

The vehicles up ahead began hitting their brakes and were almost to a complete stop at the intersection. Some of the drivers blared their horns as they breezed by deputies in yellow ponchos trying to corral traffic, said Weber, who was on her way home to Masaryktown.

"I don't know what their hurry was," she said.

The rain dropped on Hernando County in the early afternoon was part of a system headed east. Forecasters give a 40 percent chance of isolated showers and possibly thunderstorms after 2 p.m. today.