A woman and a female teenager were nearly struck by lightning during a thunderstorm in the late afternoon of Thursday, November 15, in Argao town in southern Cebu, about 68 kilometers from Cebu City.
Janilyn Dunes, 35, of Barangay Poblacion, Dalaguete, and Noven Monares, 15, of Barangay Lapay of Argao, experienced dizziness and vomited after they were nearly zapped by lightning at past 6 p.m., as they were about to seek shelter from the rain at a waiting shed along the highway, said Chief Inspector Jose Rovic Villarin, Argao Police Station chief, in an interview on Friday.
Villarin said the woman and teenager were on a motorcycle when it rained and they decided to take shelter at a waiting shed along the highway.
It was then that lightning struck near them.
The women claimed they ran to the farther end of the waiting shed, away from where the lightning struck , when they then heard a thunderous clap.
Monares told police that her cellphone, which she dropped when she ran to seek shelter on one part of the waiting shed, could have saved them.
She theorized that the cellphone could have attracted the lightning and that was where the lightning struck.
They told police that they felt dizzy and vomited after the explosion.
Villarin said they were already up and well when medical responders arrived to look at them.