Four Black women enjoying a vacation at the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in Florida were subjected to a horrible scene recently. Right across the beach, a bolt of lightning hit a nearby tiki hut. Danielle Sturgill, Taylor Sturgill, Becky Johnson, Kelli Bryant enjoyed the sun around the pool. Then, almost out of nowhere, an errant squall moved through the area, requiring a speedy retreat to safety.
The lightning didn’t strike the women directly. Instead, it thrust violently into the ground, knocking them out cold. “I can remember really heavy pressure on my head, and then after that, I was gone,” Danielle described her experience. When she woke up, she couldn’t move her legs. In fact, when I initially woke up I had no sensation or use in my legs. They were completely numb,” Kelli Bryant added.
Kelli expressed the emotional impact of the incident, stating, “It’s like a bond with these girls that I will never forget.” Looking back on that day, Taylor Sturgill, one of the leaders involved, remembered the chaos of that day. “When I picked myself up off the ground, I looked at Becky and I said, ‘What in the world just happened to us?’” she recalled.
Becky Johnson looked back on their struggle to survive, giving all credit to God. “God was with us, and he definitely had his hand on us,” she stated. The group was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries but considers their survival a fortunate event and a stark reminder of the dangers posed by lightning storms.
As our lightning expert Zee explained, lightning can strike more than 25 miles away from an actual storm. He emphasized the importance of safety measures during such weather conditions: “If lightning is within 15 miles, even if thunder is not heard yet, it is crucial to get indoors.”
