Thunder rattled homes, and lightning lit up the grey sky over the Central Valley Sunday morning.
In Selma, homeowners spent the morning clearing a tree after lightning splintered the top half of it. In Sanger, lightning struck a 100-year-old oak tree, which sits in front of the city's recreation center.
Angie Perez lives nearby. She had just gotten home from the store when she saw the bolt. "And then we looked up, and we saw the fire. Like we're having a Hawaii party or something. And then you could smell it."
The storm also caused several power outages, as well as some minor flooding. The parking lot outside the Sanger library was flooded .
Firefighters there admit they were stretched thin. "We ran thirteen calls in three hours' time. As soon as the rain started, storms, lightning, thunder. We took off. We were very very busy," Captain Todd Wilson of the Sanger Fire Department said.
Cal Fire and ambulance crews were called in to assist. One of the calls they responded to came from a Sanger home where a 21-year-old woman was struck by lightning.
Jesus Resendez is the woman's brother. He says she was standing against this sliding glass door during the storm when she felt a shock run through her leg.
"My mom told us not to get near the window when there's thunder because you could get shocked, so I'm guessing it went through our sliding door and then got her in the ankle," Jesus Resendez said. The woman is back home, and doing well.
