Citizen Staff/Hank Snyder
Ed Rehrig was disconnecting his modem when lightning struck his apartment, went through the cable he's holding in his hand, and knocked him across the room.
MAYVILLE — Ed and Rhonda Rehrig were home watching TV on a stormy Saturday night.
Suddenly there was the crash of thunder.
"This meant lightning," said Ed Rehrig. "I have a degree in computer support and know what lightning can do to a computer so I hurried to my computer to disconnect it.
"As I was unplugging my cable modem lightning hit the building and came through the cable broadband I was holding. There was a huge electric flash and I heard the thunder a milli-second after that and I got thrown across the room."
It's a night he'll never forget.
His wife Rhonda yelled out, "Was that a lightning strike?"
"I said 'yes.' I was dizzy, lightheaded," said Rehrig. "She came running down the hall and saw me laying there like a rag doll."
Rhonda called 911 and the police arrived first.
"The officer, I forget his name, checked the room for anything still smoldering, then the EMTs came and said, 'we got to get you to the hospital.' The strength in my hand was very weak and that's what prompted them to get me to the hospital."
After a few hours at Beaver Dam Community Hospital Rehrig was released.
That was June 27.
"The electricity came in my thumb and two fingers went through my heart, and out my foot," said Rehrig. "The tingling is gone, and the scar on my foot can barely be seen."
But Rehrig said he still doesn't have much strength in his hand and the pain in his hand and forearm from the electric shock, combined with his extreme fibromyalgia, was unbearable enough the other day to make him "ready to jump off a bridge."
Rehrig said he had a computer fry four or five years ago from an electrical storm which is why he was disconnecting his computer in this storm.
As far as something good coming from the experience, Rehrig said this might be the right opportunity for him to get the word out about surge protectors. "Too many people think a surge protector is all they need to protect their computer. It's not. The surge protector is only good if the electricity goes off, then comes back on. People should know surge protectors usually won't work against lightning," he said.
Rehrig said though he didn't need the experience he's happy he survived.
"The bottom line is, I got hit and I survived," he said.