August Camp 2022 Lightning Strike

Told by Jimboy Miller

“Here we go again”…

The approaching storm clouds were not unusual in early August. In fact, they happen so much we didn’t give them a thought. Sure, thunder and lightning can be scary, but we have always taken thunderstorms seriously at camp and have had 103 years of experience to prepare for such things! We have lightning rods in the big trees around the lake (each lightning rod protects a 300-foot radius) and a lightning detection system that alerts us when we will have lightning in the area (older campers knew this system as “Thor” and our newer campers as “Perry”). We have lots of large buildings for protection and ample space to do most activities in any storm.

But these nighttime clouds were REALLY big and REALLY dark, and we knew the storm was going to be a big one. So we ended the night’s Lip Sync EP early, and as the girls ran up the hill from the Fort, the first raindrops started to fall.

I also ran up the hill, and my shirt was completely drenched by the time I made it to my house. I quickly changed into some dry clothes and sat down in my favorite chair to enjoy watching the storm roll in. My chair is right beside a plate glass window facing the lake, and in no time, I had a front row seat to a brilliant flash that lit up the entire Green River Valley as bright as day!

Camp had been struck by lightning!

A roar of squeals erupted from the cabins (as all girls were safe in their cabins listening to devotions at the time). I “yelped” too as I jumped from my chair and ran to the porch, turning up the volume on the staff radio to hear the reports from the various Head Staff. Our Group Leaders immediately spread out to check on the campers and began searching for any damage.

All the girls were safe, and all the cabin areas and camp buildings appeared to be OK. I assumed that one of the lightning rods on the front campus had taken the bolt and thanked the Lord for His protection.

But I was mistaken about camp being unscathed. We found out the aftermath the next morning.

The lightning bolt hit a tree on the outskirts of camp – a tall pine tree that anchored our giant slide at Waterpark. This tree is on the side of Apple Hill, far from the center of camp, and we never thought it needed protection. Boy, were we wrong!

The tree quite literally exploded, putting our giant slide out of commission. While the slide was still there, the place where it connected to the tree was a tangled and broken mess, making the slide no longer safe to use. A large portion of the Blob dock was also damaged.

We soon realized that the storm also caused damage to many of our systems throughout camp. The power for the gym, the pumps for the small slide, the pool pumps and pool phone, the irrigation system, the camp internet, the office phones, and the camp sound system (meaning no more bugles!) were all out.

This was a literal camp disaster, but like all good Greystone Girls, we proceeded to make lemonade out of the lemons!

Our amazing maintenance team got the gym, small slide, and pool repaired and running by the end of breakfast. The phones and internet were partially repaired that same day, and we ran camp as if nothing happened. Bells replaced bugles as we adjusted to life without a sound system (that system was just fixed in September due to the extensive repairs needed), but it was fun to use the bells in the same way Greystone Girls enjoyed years ago. We finished August Camp without a problem.

As we look back at the summer of 2022, the Great Lightning Strike is celebrated as one of our favorite memories; it was literally a one-in-a-hundred event! We are grateful for the many ways that the Lord protected us on that crazy evening. And when we rebuild the Giant Slide, we are certainly going to have a GREAT BIG lightning rod at the top!