Powerful Lightning Bolt Damages Curtis Ball Field
By Paul Gingras

"It must have been amazing," said P.J. Costa, fire chief of the Portage Township Fire Department, describing a powerful lightning bolt that struck Curtis Recreation Area on H-42 Monday, May 14. The bolt destroyed wooden poles, trees, wiring, and a cement pad at the township's main baseball field.

The lightning hit between 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., said Township Clerk Marcia Mc- Donald. After perusing the damage, she said the area looked like the scene of a horror movie.

Mr. Costa, who helps fight fires for the Department of Natural Resources, has seen the results of lightning before, but said he has never encountered one that did this much damage.

The bolt hit the ball field's backstop, split, and traveled the full length of the metal fence surrounding the field before leaping into the woods, peeling two inches of bark from the nearest tree and jumping to five more trees before finally losing power, Mr. Costa said.

The lightning blew apart a cement pad that connects metal posts to the backstop.

As the electricity traveled the length of the fence, it had to pass through the earth at gaps in the fence. Where it jumped, the bolt tore an eight- or nine-inch-deep line through the earth, scattering dirt in all directions. There are eight or nine gaps along the fence.

All told, the bolt traveled more than 1,000 feet, Mr. Costa estimated.

As it moved along the fence, the electricity reached a wide double gate designed to allow an ambulance access to the field. Both doors of the gate were blown off their posts.

Another casualty of the bolt was the field's concession stand. The lightning jumped from the fence to the stand, where it destroyed all wiring and disintegrated three or four electrical plug boxes. It also destroyed the public address system.

The bolt appears to have jumped back and forth, Mr. Costa added. At one point, it grounded hard near two wooden poles lying on the grass. Not only were both two-foot by 10-foot poles broken in half, the force of the electricity was so strong that dirt erupted upward toward the concession stand's metal overhang. The side of the building was not burned where this happened, so it appears the dirt blast itself peeled back the metal roofing.

"I have never seen anything like it," Mr. Costa said.

Its light was bright enough to confuse daylight sensors and shut off lights along Main Street in Curtis.

The township has hired Pan Electric Industries to assess the damage, which Mr. Costa expects to reach $1,000. If the breaker box in the concession stand was destroyed, the price may be higher.