Wild lightning strike that hit truck also fried Hillsborough County deputy’s cruiser

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A terrifying lightning strike that hit a truck near Tampa on Friday also “fried” a Hillsborough County deputy’s vehicle. The deputy described the scary encounter to WFLA on Wednesday.

Deputy Kristen Miceli said she was driving on I-75 beside the truck of a family visiting from Indiana when she heard a clap of thunder. Volunteers comfort animals at Humane Society of Tampa Bay on July 4 “It sounded like when you hear loud thunder when it’s like outside your house, but it sounded like it was right next to my ear, which freaked me out because I never heard it that loud before,” said Deputy Miceli. Miceli thought she had blown a tire at first.

“The car was fried. When I was going down the road, all the lights on the dashboard had turned on and my power steering went out. My car shut off and I kind of just coasted,” said Deputy Miceli.

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Lightning had hit a truck being driven by Edward Whalen of Indiana. The strike was caught on camera by Whalen’s wife Michelle, who was recording from another car behind the truck. “That truck got the main hit of it, but whether I got hit by another strike that wasn’t captured on video or it was so close that it ricocheted, I got hit and I was right next to that truck when it got hit,” Deputy Miceli said.

Thankfully, no one in either of the vehicles was injured. Tampa Bay poet and activist gives families free gas “I’m grateful that I wasn’t injured and that everyone else wasn’t injured either,” said Deputy Miceli. According to the Whalen family, their truck was “completely fried” by the lightning strike.

Edward Whalen said he’s just glad they’re alive. “It was pretty wild. After everything was done, my son said we needed to check ourselves in a couple days for super powers,” he said.

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