A Utah teen miraculously survived being struck by lightning after he was found unconscious during a church hike, crediting “divine intervention” for keeping him alive.
Jacob Johnson,18, was hiking Salina Canyon with 50 other teens from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Thursday when the thunderbolt hit the group, according to KSL TV.
“We started to hike, and it started to come down pretty hard. I remember thinking like, ‘This is kind of a little scary,’” Johnson recalled to the outlet.
Footage captured the moment an earth-shaking crack struck near Johnson, who had been walking along a muddy route during the rain shower.
The teen hikers screamed in fear and confusion, with multiple of them shouting, “I just got hit.”
As the group tried to regain its bearings, one of the hikers can be heard off camera, saying, “Jacob Johnson and I just got hit. I’m ok, but he’s not doing too well.”
The camera pans down to Johnson, seemingly unconscious and lying motionless on the ground with a black garbage bag wrapped around his body.
“I remember it felt like a baseball bat had just been swung into my head. And I flew forward, and I blacked out,” Johnson said.
The teen remembers waking up in a daze, thinking that he had died.
“I was thinking, you know, is this it? You know, did I just die? I was thinking about all the things that I still wanted to accomplish in my life,” Johnson said.
“I just had an overwhelming sense of love from my Heavenly Father because I knew I had more to do in this world and from that moment on, I knew I was going to be okay.”
Johnson, along with six other teens, were then rushed to the hospital, according to the outlet.
The 18-year-old suffered a minor concussion and was released a few hours later.
“It’s truly a miracle, considering the circumstances,” Johnson told the outlet. “There had to be some divine intervention because there’s no way that, you know, I just get knocked out on the ground, and the next day, I’m perfectly fine.”
But he believes his faith kept him safe during the harrowing ordeal.
“When we have faith, faith in our God that we can get through those things, that’s what I’ve learned,” Johnson said.
The wet ground acted as a conductor for the lightning, causing multiple teens to feel the shock, according to the outlet.
Salina Canyon is about 140 miles outside of Salt Lake City.
Around 300 people a year will be struck by lightning in the United States — with an average of 86 people being fatally hit, according to the National Weather Service.
The average person has a 1-in-600,000 chance of being struck by lightning during their lifetime.
Even the weakest thunderstorms can produce lightning, and most fatal strikes happen while the victim is hiking, swimming, or playing golf, according to the agency.
