Bolt from the blue
Just another working day became a nightmare, leaving a village in shock and a family in shambles. Kumudini Hettiarachchi reports

There were no crackers or raban in the homes clustered around Ilandagahawewa Handiya deep in the North Central Province this Avurudu. No pot of milk boiled or kiribath with newly-harvested rice cooked over a single hearth in this farming village. It is a village in shock, in mourning over a bolt from the blue.

There are only sighs as the women shake their heads sadly and whisper that such a thing has never happened in living memory or even in the time of their muthun miththo (ancestors). They wipe their tears with the edge of their cloths and with stoic resignation wend their way to the fields. The rains have come and if they do not work fast and furiously, the paddy crops will be destroyed. The toiling peasantry of this village off the Nochchiyagama-Anuradhapura Road have to cut the paddy before more damage is done.

This season, the rains have not only wrought havoc in their paddy fields but also brought a new and terrible phenomenon, one that most of them cannot grasp. The rains have brought akunu (bolts of lightning) and death.

April 12, was another "working day" for Chandrapala Jayawardene and his precious family. His wife Padmawathie, 32, was up at the crack of dawn to cook the rice and dhal she was taking with her to the fields for a whole gang of them. She was in a rush, but their toddler would not wake up. So she told Chandrapala to bring him later to his sister's house, where both their children would stay, while nine men and women got into the fields and gathered the harvest, in an attempt to beat the rains before the Avurudu. Then she was off with two of her nephews in a tractor to the family's wela, four miles away in Maha Lindawewa, through the unspoilt, stark beauty of the dry zone.

"Before she left home, she kept aside some new rice to pound and make kavum for our two children, family and friends," says Chandrapala, making futile attempts to still the sobs wracking his very being. Theirs was a great love affair from the time he served as a policeman in Buttala. They met in the south, fell in love and married. Padmawathie then accompanied her husband to his native village and adopted it as her own. He built their home while he was a policeman, but the little touches and improvements were hers with the money they made from working the fields.

Yes, they worked the fields side by side, ploughing, sowing, spraying thel and bringing in the harvest. She was also good in the kitchen and could make the simplest of meals taste delicious.

She and the others began work in the fields that fateful day after a quick breakfast and kahata. When he joined them they were half way through. The work was backbreaking, but banter and laughter lightened the load. There were nine of them in all - brothers, in-laws and nephews; five men and four women. They were bent double in the mud, cutting the golden paddy ears with sickles and feeding them in bundles to the threshing machine. Then the sky opened up, not in torrents, but as a steady and light drizzle. They continued to work awhile, then sought shelter in the hut in the middle of the wela. They hadn't had their lunch though it was late afternoon. They wanted to see the work through, for the next day they would down their sickles during the nonagathe, and prepare for Avurudu.

The group trickled into the tiny, sides-open hut and "ankura gahagena" (squatted) chatted. Chandrapala was turned away from the others. Suddenly, a deafening noise, like a massive bomb shook the area. The next thing he knew all were thrown on the ground. Padmawathie was not breathing, but there were no injuries. His nephew, Anura Dikkumbura, was bleeding from the ears and nose. In a daze, he pressed his beloved wife's chest, then put her across his shoulder and ran through the fields to the road, from where he rushed her to the Ranawarawa Hospital on a motorcycle. But she was already dead.

His lathoniya (agonized screams) alerted the villagers and they rallied round taking the others to hospital. Anura, 22, too was already dead.

"Gini bolayak kelinma avith, puduma saddayakin pipuruwa. (A ball of fire came straight at us and burst with a thunderous sound)," says J.M. Somawathie, 50, who was seated between Padmawathie and Anura. She thinks she fainted and got up when Chandrapala started screaming.

When she came around she was standing, recalls Somawathie, still trembling at the thought of such a close brush with death. "Immediately after I couldn't see or hear properly."

T.B. Jayawardene, lifts up his shirt and shows us the "burnt" marks on his hip and stomach. He was one of the three people injured in this "lightning" attack. He was thrown many feet away and felt paralysed. When the bolt hit, there was no pain, only a sudden numbness. "I could only move my head", his body had gone limp.

They dragged him along the fields, as he couldn't get up and put him into a lorry and took him to hospital. He has just come back from there, still trying to figure out what hit him.

The fields lie abandoned and desolate. There are no signs that a bolt of lightning has passed through, only man's fear, for someone has detroyed the hut so that it would never be used again. We too have gone off the beaten track to the fields. How many times would Padmawathie have trod this path, passing the Yale Gamawewa and taking the bund of the Maha Lindawewa dotted with white nelum in full bloom? How often would she have stopped to gaze at the abundant birdlife - a cormorant stretching its wings on the rotten branch of a palu tree, a flash of vivid blue as a kingfisher dives for its fishy prey and the long-legged kana kokku and sudu kokku wading through the shallows looking for a hapless fish or frog? The beauty is lost on Chandrapala. He refuses to take us to his fields. He will "never" work those fields again. He cannot even bear to go there. He will give them on "badda" and later sell them off. What can he tell his two children, nine-year-old Thilini and two-year-old Thilina? In the early hours of the morning, when little Thilina who usually suckles her and sleeps nestled against his mother, cries out for Padmawathie, what should he do?

Even the heavens have no answer to that heart-rending and plaintive cry, "Where is Ammi?"

Lightning: common myths and truths
By Dr. Chandima Gomes
In Sri Lanka, there are many beliefs and folk stories related to lightning. As another lightning season is upon us, here are some common beliefs and myths.

Lightning is a ball of fire or a ball of melted iron.
No. Lightning is an electric spark between a cloud and the ground, between two clouds or between two parts of a cloud.

It is dangerous to be the tallest protrusion of a landscape during thunderstorm conditions.
If you are a tall protrusion in a certain landscape your body may be the unfortunate object that sends the first upward channel that meets the downward stream of charge from the cloud. Thus in thunderstorm conditions, it is advisable to avoid standing in playgrounds, seashores, paddy fields, open boats on rivers or in the sea. Roads with no structures alongside or swimming in open waters etc should be avoided. One should also refrain from hiking, working on roofs, on the top of buildings under construction and on telecommunication, radio and television towers (even if the structures are lightning protected).

If you are caught outdoors in an intense thunderstorm it would be better to get shelter under a tree.
No. The large current that flows along the trunk of a tree as a result of a lightning strike may reach the ground through your body when you stand nearby. This is termed a side flash. The number one rule of lightning protection is not to take shelter under trees or any other tall structures when lightning strikes.

Caught outdoors in an intense lightning storm, the best position is to lie down flat.
No. If you lie down flat in a thunderstorm, lightning that strikes the ground nearby, may send a current through the soil, which may enter your body thus damaging many vital internal organs. Thus it is best to squat and rest your head on your knees.

A person with wet clothes will not be struck by lightning.
No. However, if the person is struck by lightning then wet clothes will give him some protection. The lightning current always takes the best conducting (least resistive) path. When a person is wet, his external body becomes a good conductor thus the current will prefer to flow outside the body instead of flowing internally. Thus you will escape with some skin burns instead of your vital organs being damaged.

One can avoid lightning strikes or escape unharmed if wearing rubber footwear or plastic raincoats.
No. In contrast to the situation where a person touches a live electric wire, the insulation of rubber, plastic or any fabric cover is not sufficient at all to give you any lightning protection.

A person struck by lightning carries a charge in his body for several minutes so it is dangerous to touch him immediately after the strike.
No. The electrical charge injected into a person by a lightning current is drained into the earth within a fraction of a second. Hence, the lightning victim should be attended to immediately and first aid given as soon as possible.

A single lightning strike may kill more than one.
Yes. Recently 11 players of a football team in Africa were killed by a single lightning strike. Also when there are several people under a tree, several side flashes may leap out of the tree (once the tree is struck) either killing or injuring all of them. Even in Sri Lanka, a couple of weeks ago, a single bolt of lightning killed five people at the same spot.

It is dangerous to use the telephone during thunderstorm periods.
Yes. There is a high chance of lightning striking telephone and power lines which run for miles over the open fields. Once lightning strikes the telephone network, large waves of current will propagate to the nearby subscribers through the lines. A person who uses the telephone during such an instant may be injured or even killed by this large current.

It is risky to repair electrical networks (house wiring etc.) during thunderstorm periods.
Yes. Similar to the above case, a large current may propagate though a power cable in the event of a lightning strike. This current may reach a person who repairs the network even if the main switch is off.

Electrical equipment is safe if switched off during thunderstorm periods.
No. The lightning current, which may propagate through power cables, can easily jump across the open switches and enter the equipment. Thus, it is highly advisable to disconnect your electrical appliances from the power line (unplug them) during thunderstorm periods. TV antenna cables should also be disconnected and kept outside the house.

It is dangerous to use a needle or sew during a period when lightning is striking nearby.
May be. Sharp and pointed metallic objects attract lightning more than blunt and smooth objects do.

There are certain small areas in the country, which are prone to a high rate of lightning.
May be. Several people have reported that there are small areas (especially some villages in Kalutara, Matugama, Horana, Matara & Matale, which receive a high density of lightning compared to the other neighbouring areas. These areas are not located in specific geographical conditions that favour a high rate of lightning strikes (located at high altitude, isolated hills etc.). More research is needed to give reasons for this.

Coconut trees are prone to a high rate of lightning strikes.
Yes. Being a tall tree and having leaves with sharp edges and pointed ends, a coconut tree may be the object that sends the first channel to meet the downward channel from the cloud.

A lightning protection system repels a lightning strike that may come to your building.
No. Instead of repelling a lightning channel, a lightning protection system attracts it. However, as the lightning current is safely driven into earth the building will not be damaged.

A lightning protection system will completely protect you from lightning.
No. Your building is protected only from direct strikes and probably from side flashes. Still your building can be penetrated by lightning currents that propagate along service lines (power, telecommunication etc.). There are special devices (surge protectors) which prevent these current impulses from entering your building. The sophisticated electronics in your building can also be damaged by radiation, which will be emitted from the lightning flash. This radiation can be blocked from entering your building by taking measures of electromagnetic compatibility. Yet despite all these systems still nobody can guarantee you 100% protection from lightning.

Lightning has a good side as well.
Yes. Due to the extremely hot conditions imposed by a lightning flash, Oxygen and Nitrogen combine together to form Nitrous Oxides. These nitrous compounds dissolve in rainwater and reach the ground to fertilise the soil.
( The writer is a Chartered Physicist (UK) and Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Colombo)

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