They say lightning doesn't strike twice, but it did in Nova Scotia over the weekend. One bolt hit a moving car while a father and his two sons were on their way to Wolfville, and a second bolt struck a church steeple in Bass River.
"I was starting the pastoral prayer and then we heard the explosion," says Larry Tirrell, pastor at the Bass River United Baptist Church.
"A big bang came, the lights went out and everything went still," says Marina Hill, a parishioner at the church.
Hill was among those saying prayers and singing hymns inside the church, while a wild electrical storm raged outside on Sunday. A lightning bolt struck the church's steeple, blowing a hole right through it.
"It was like a streak coming straight out of heaven," says Ken Knight, who had set up a yard sale across the street from the church. "It was pretty scary, I've never seen anything like that in my life."
The church is more than 100 years old, and the pastor has had a contractor come to assess the damage.
"He said it exploded from the inside out, so it hit that rod and came down the rod and out the side," says Larry Tirrell.
Lightning also touched down in Windsor, Nova Scotia, this time striking a car.
John Burdock and his 18-year-old sons, Sean and Evan, were on their way to Wolfville when their red Mazda 3 was hit.
Burdock says the car's antenna acted as a lightning rod, and the bolt hit the antenna blowing it clear off the car. The force also blew out the rear glass window.
"It was just like a gun being fired off inside the car," says John Burdock. "The engine went dead, back window was gone."
Right after it hit, we smelled the electricals burning," says his son. "It zapped off the antenna. That's what we smelled after a couple of seconds and that's when we clued in that we just got hit by lightning."
Burdock and his sons say they weren't scared, but were actually excited about the hit. The two boys started texting their friends while Burdock decided it was a good day to buy a lottery ticket.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell
