Most people would view having lightning strike on a Friday the 13th as bad luck.
But Oxford resident Pam Ziskie, who’s studying to become a Native American shaman (medicine man) doesn’t feel that way at all.
‘Usually, when it hits in your yard it’s a good thing, it’s an omen,? she said.
It appears lightning struck the village-owned tree in the front yard of Ziskie’s Dayton St. home during the severe thunderstorm that rolled through early Friday morning.
According to the National Weather Service, a trained spotter in Oxford reported estimated wind gusts of 60 miles per hour and hail with an estimated three-quarter-inch diameter during Friday’s storm which hit around 6:55 a.m.
Ziskie said she and her 15-year-old son, Cody, were video-recording the storm and large hail when ‘all of the sudden we heard this big boom? followed by a ‘crash.?
‘It shook our house,? she said.
The two immediately ran inside the house and into the basement. When Cody ran back up to shut the garage door, he saw the front tree was down and yelled to his mother that it had been struck by lightning.
Although neither of them actually witnessed it, judging by the evidence, it appears lightning struck the tree.
All that remained standing was approximately six feet of tree trunk.
‘I don’t think it was the wind that did this,? said DPW Superintendent Don Brantley.
‘I think it’s possible that it could have been hit by lightning. I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t rule that out,? said Fire Chief Jack LeRoy.
When the wind knocks over a tree, Brantley said it usually splits and falls unless it gets uprooted.
‘It didn’t split or nothing,? he said. ‘It just chopped right in half. It’s a clean cut.?
Brantley noted that Friday’s storm and winds were coming out of the west. Had the tree been blown over, it would have fallen to the east. Ziskie’s tree landed to the north toward the house.
There was no burned or charred wood around the area where the tree broke in two, however, LeRoy said a lightning strike might not blacken it. ‘It won’t necessarily leave blackening because a tree is moist and it’s got so much mass that it can conduct the electricity quickly into the ground,? he said.
Although the tree was diseased, it was still pretty strong, according to Brantley.
Normally, when a tree goes bad, it gets a brown pulpy decay in the middle of the trunk.
‘This one didn’t have that,? Brantley said. ‘The center’s just a little pulpy, but there’s no brown rot or anything.?
Ziskie, whose grandparents are Native American, found it ‘ironic? that lightning would strike her property just two days after her shaman class was discussing ‘lightning stories.?
‘All shamans have stories about lightning and how it opens up their powers,? she said.
Ziskie said she had been meditating in her yard and wondered if she ‘magnetized? the tree. Stranger things have happened.
As for Brantley and his crew, the lighting was not a good omen because they had to clean up the debris along with all the other fallen branches and limbs around the village.
‘We’re going to be doing this all day today,? he said. The DPW had ‘just got everything cleaned up? Thursday from the Sunday, June 8 storm. ‘We went through the whole town three times,? Brantley said. ‘Ninety-nine percent of everything was cleaned up.?
On the bright side, Brantley noted, ‘There was nowhere near the damage today as there was Sunday.?