| Six Hundred Eightieth in the Famous People (FP) Series - Roy Sullivan |
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Roy Cleveland Sullivan (February 7, 1912 – September 28, 1983) was a U.S. park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was hit by lightning on seven different occasions and survived all of them. For this reason, he gained a nickname "Human Lightning Conductor" or "Human Lightning Rod". Sullivan is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more recorded times than any other human being.
The first documented lightning strike of Sullivan occurred in April 1942. He was hiding from a thunderstorm in a fire lookout tower. The tower was newly built and had no lightning rod at the time; it was hit seven or eight times. Inside the tower, "fire was jumping all over the place." Sullivan ran out and just a few feet away received what he considered to be his worst lightning strike. It burned a half-inch strip all along his right leg, hit his toe, and left a hole in his shoe.
The odds of being struck by lightning for a person over the period of 80 years have been roughly estimated as 1:10000. If the lightning strikes were independent events, the probability of being hit seven times would be 1:100007. These numbers do not quite apply to Sullivan, however, who by the nature of his work was more exposed to storms than the average person.
Between 1959 and 2000 lightning killed 58 people and injured at least 238 people in Virginia. In the United States, 3239 people were killed and 13,057 injured by lightning in the same period. Most of those were males between 20 and 40 years old caught outdoors.
Don't you be caught looking for this magnetic key holder during any chance of a thunderstorm. Cache is above ground level, but you do not need to go all the way to the top. It is NOT inside the blockhouse at the top. There are critters living in there like wasps and buzzards and such.
FP caches are always placed with regards to the location, so please be mindful of your presence here, watch where you step and be careful. Please re-hide the container better to maintain the integrity of the cache.
Avoid the use of acronym only logs, one word logs and cut 'n paste logs. You must sign the log to claim the find. No exceptions, no excuses. Blank logs may be deleted without notice.