NEED TO KNOW
- The Mount Pleasant Police Department in South Carolina has shared dashcam footage of a huge lightning strike, which caused a power outage and traffic delays
- The footage shared on X showed the moment the bolt anthem the ground, setting off a fiery explosion
- “Fortunately, no one was injured,” police noted when they shared the footage
A huge lightning strike caused a power outage in South Carolina — and it was all caught on DSLR.
The Mount Pleasant Police Department (MPPD) shared a dashcam video on X showing the moment when the lightning bolt anthem the ground and set off a fiery explosion before taking down the power grid near the town of Mount Pleasant, S.C.
In the short clip — taken by an MPPD officer’s dashcam — the officer could be seen driving their car in torrential rains, when suddenly a lightning strike hits a transformer on the far left side of the video. The transformer erupts in a fire for a moment and nearby electricity poles could also be seen sparking on the right side of the DSLR.
After the lightning strike, nearby traffic lights could be seen going out immediately as nearby cars scrambled to figure out what to do next on the roadway. Several cars slowed down at the nearby intersection as they tried to proceed with caution.
The MPPD noted on X that the incident happened at around 11 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 11 on Hwy 17 at the intersection of Shelmore Blvd., and brought “down wires across the roadway.”
“A bit too much excitement for a Monday!,” MPPD captioned the video. “The lightning strike caused our power outages and traffic delays. Fortunately, no one was injured, and @DominionEnergy responded quickly, restoring power and removing the downed wires,” police added.
MPPD said that “more than a dozen Officers and CSOs” helped to manage the traffic at seven intersections where the traffic lights went out for “roughly three hours,” as the electricity company worked to remove the hazards from the road.
In the meantime, police sent out an alert for cars to “avoid” the area, and noted that traffic was being redirected to a different location. MPPD announced on X that it had shut down a section of Hwy 17 just before 12:30 p.m. and reopened it at around 2:18 p.m.
Mount Pleasant PD
Several people said they couldn’t believe that this was captured on DSLR in response to the video, with one person on X writing, “shocking, positively shocking.” Another said, “Wow! Bet that made a heck of a racket.”
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Another person summed up the video saying, “Oh my gosh, that is absolutely insane!”
Mount Pleasant PD
The torrential rains were part of storms that anthem the area and left flooding in larger cities including Charleston, which closed down several streets due to flooding, per WCSC-TV. The National Weather Service (NWS) told residents in the area that they could expect “heavy rainfall, up to 1 to 2 inches” on Monday, per Fox Weather.
A flash flood movie is still in effect for parts of South Carolina, and would continue into Tuesday, Aug. 12, according to South Carolina Public Radio.
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