ISU junior has electrifying experience

About two years ago, Cornell was home in Greentown filming an approaching thunderstorm while standing under his father's garage overhang and talking to his best friend on the phone.

Then it happened. Lightning struck an antenna near his home, and electricity ran down the wires to the house.

In a split second, the electricity from the bolt of lightning pulsed through his body.

"It was like I came out of my body," Cornell said to describe the unique feeling of being hit by lightning. "Instinctively, I took cover from the storm. All I really remember was that the hair on the back of my neck was standing on end. The only way to describe it is to imagine insects crawling all over your back and not being able to do anything about it."

Miraculously, Cornell did not sustain any injuries from the incident.

He even succeeded in getting it all on tape.

"A couple of days after it all happened, I e-mailed "RealTV" and told them about my video," Cornell said.

In a few days, a film crew was at his house, and Paramount, the company that owns "RealTV," bought the rights to his tape.

RealTV is a syndicated television show that features incredible happenings caught on home video.

Cornell's video was the feature on "RealTV's" season premiere in 1997.

However, his 15 minutes of fame were not over.

His home was again invaded by a film crew, this time from ABC's "World's Deadliest Storms," which was also interested in his experience.

"It was kind of cool at first," Cornell said of his initial reaction to the video's appearance on television. "I was really excited; it was all pretty wild. Now I wish that I hadn't sold the rights to my tape. I just got caught up in the whole thing."

Cornell said he has always been interested in weather systems and still enjoys watching thunderstorms.

As a pro-pilot major and climatology minor, he deals with weather in many of his classes. However, he now has much more respect for thunderstorms.

"I still enjoy watching storms, but now I do it from inside," Cornell said. "I do get kind of wary of them when they start getting close, though. Maybe God was just trying to send me the message to not mess with mother nature."

Cornell's episode of "RealTV" is still running, and some of his friends in other countries have seen his video on the show.

"My friends still like to tease me because when it happened, my mother was yelling at me to come inside," Cornell said. "I yelled back and told her to shut up, and I never do that."

For more on Cornell's experience, visit his website at sapphire.indstate.edu/~cornellc