ST. LOUIS (KMOX) –The storm that moved through the area early this afternoon almost proved deadly for a St. Louis Parks Department gardener, who was hit by a lightning bolt  outside the Jewell Box in Forest Park.

The victim was sitting with her supervisor and another woman in the back of a box truck waiting for the storm to pass. They had their feet on the truck’s  bumper.  

Supervisor Tina Rein says when the bolt hit,  “She fell off the truck and said she’d been hit.” Rein says the victim said, ”I can’t feel my legs, my feet are burning, I can’t feel my legs.”

Rein says she and the other woman, along with a man who was behind them in the box truck, helped the victim to the truck’s cab.  She says the victim was able to help them assist her to the cab.   The victim was then taken to a hospital by ambulance.

There was no tree or light pole damage near the Jewel Box, but  it looked like a chunk had been blown out of the asphalt sidewalk near where the truck was parked at the time.  

Copyright KMOX Radio                                                                          

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Filed Under: Forest Park, gardener, Jewel Box, Lightning, lightning strike, severe storm

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