Across the lake not far away, Akiko Barton was shooting video of the worsening weather conditions and captured footage of the lightning strike, along with her husband Nick saying, “They fell into the water … We have to go help them.”
The incident occurred over Labor Day weekend, but the Barton’s video was just posted Thursday:
Chris Lovera, 51, and his 12-year-old son Aiden and 9-year-old daughter Nadia were taking a video of themselves in the storm when they were struck. All were momentarily knocked unconscious and none has a recollection of what happened, according to CBS San Francisco.
“We didn’t hear, see or sense in any way that this had happened,” Lovera told the Monterey Herald. “It was so bizarre – from the moment we all have this collective memory of videotaping this torrential downpour – that’s kind of where everything stopped.”
The kids awakened first.
“I thought he was dead cuz I was just screaming at him and I couldn’t see him breathing or moving,” Aiden told CBS San Francisco, referring to his father.
Like Nick, Royce and Melissa Gibson also saw the lightning strike and were the first people to respond.
“A bolt hits a tree and a puff of smoke comes out and it looked like their bodies just elevated — and hit the ground,” Royce told the Monterey Herald.
“I was in disbelief. My wife said, ‘Did you see those branches fall?’ I said, ‘I don’t think those were branches.’”
Nick told Lovera that it looked like his family had been “blown up.”