According to the National Weather Service, the chances of getting hit by lightning in your lifetime are one in 10,000.
Two women in Halifax County nearly became part of that statistic after they got the shock of their lives Tuesday afternoon.
"It was like this big ol' ball of fire just shot down in front of us and it just went through my whole body," said Jennifer Duffey who felt a strong jolt of electricity run through her body after the lightning strike.
It was really loud. It was deafening. It was bad," said her cousin Shelly Beadles. "Thank God I'm alive."
Beadles and Duffey still can't believe what happened Tuesday afternoon while waiting on their kids outside their aunt's home in Halifax County.
"I was sitting there, and the hail was beating the truck and there were sticks falling on the truck and I said, 'If I don't get out of here then the tree is going to fall on the truck,' that's going to hurt me. So I get out of the truck and I run," Duffey said.
Duffey was drenched when she made it to her aunt's porch.
Her cousin grabbed her a towel to dry off but before the two could make it back inside, they received the shock of a lifetime.
"At first I was hollering, 'my feet is on fire, my feet is on fire,' and she wasn't saying nothing to me at first. Scared me to death," Duffey said.
"I really couldn't breath good so I wasn't saying much and she was hollering saying, 'it got me it got me,' and I said, 'I know it got me too,'" Beadles said.
The jolt sent the women to the hospital and knocked out power to homes nearby.
The powerful storm didn't last long but brought down trees and power lines throughout the county.
The trauma of a near lightning strike still lingers inside Duffey and Beadles.
"Now my feet and my hand feel like they're sleeping," Duffey said.
"It came out of my mouth. Because I had this metallic taste in my mouth and I still have that taste in my mouth, I can't get it out," Beadles said.
They both say next time a storm is forecasted in their neighborhood, they're staying inside.
"That was the scariest thing I've ever been through in my entire life," Duffey said.
