LIGHTNING’S TRICKS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17608, 26 October 1931, Page 8

LIGHTNING’S TRICKS

MOUNTAIN HUT STRUCK TOURISTS’ EXPERIENCES A strange thunderstorm, associated with a snowstorm quite exceptional in August, occurred on the Koralpe, in the Austrian province of Carinthia, a high-ly-frequented mountain of a height of 6000 ft. Owing to the storm, the hut on tl e top of the Koralpe was over-run by tourists to such an extent that the men spent the night sleeping in chairs and their knapsacks, While the beds and mattresses were loft to the women. The building was twice struck by lightning, and 17 persons were injured, four of them so badly that they laid to be carried down to the valley on stretchers. The landlord of the but, who is very popular among the tourists, was struck to the ground, and was only revived with great difficulty. Two strange cases arc reported: one of a girl tourist who wore a little golden chain with a medallion round her neck; the chain melted, but the gill was not injured. In the second instance a tourist was untouched by the lightning, although it melted all the metal parts of his knapsack. Others, however, h,ad their legs badly injured, and the soles of their nailed boots were literally burned off. The lightning also killed two covwi in adjoining stables.