Greased lightning

Photo by Clayton Malquist on Unsplash

It was a most terrifying experience for my wife and I yesterday when we were heading home across the Penang Bridge in hard, driving rain. It was a freak storm that brought down trees all over the state, both on the island and mainland. 

The rain came at about six-thirty or so, but had lightened up enough at about 7.15pm. From our shelter at a cafe, we decided to head for home. But who could tell that the rain became heavy again just as we entered the highway to the bridge. The windscreen wipers were working at full speed to clear the water away. 

On the bridge itself, the downpour was so terrible that all traffic slowed down to a 50kph crawl; still moving smoothly but slowed down considerably. 

All all around us, on both sides of the bridge, we detected lightning bolts crashing down. I was concentrating on the road but from the corner of my eyes, I could see the bolts of lightning striking the sea. Not pencil-thin lightning that we normally see from afar. No, these lightning bolts were near and thick, and every time one struck, the interior of the car lit up.. I estimated maybe some 30 to 40 bolts accompanied us on our journey across the bridge. Lightning has been known to strike vehicles and all of us on the bridge were simply lucky that nothing untoward happened. 

By the time we arrived at the mainland end of the Penang Bridge, the lightning strikes were behind us. But it was still raining very heavily and the roads were flooded. I debated whether to use the North-South Expressway or the old Federal road to get home, and decided on the latter. But this road was also flooded in parts. In many places, I had to keep a constant pressure on the accelerator so that the flood water wouldn't flow into the exhaust. And finally, after more than an hour's journey, I could open my gates and park the car under the porch. Took me another half hour to wind down after this experience!