Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Lightning strike crumbles church steeple in Muscatine


From Iowa-

The Rev. Cathi Bencken managed to crack a joke Monday after an apparent lightning strike zapped an iron cross and crumbled the steeple of Trinity Episcopal Church.

“I don’t think it was (because) of anything I said,” she said of the sermon she delivered Sunday.
Neighbors in a nearby downtown apartment told Bencken and other church leaders that lightning hit the church about 3:30 a.m.

A separate lightning strike knocked out the sound system and caused some other minor damage at St. Mathias Catholic Church. The building was not damaged, however.
At Trinity Episcopal, Bencken surveyed the damage later in the morning with Diana Williams, the church secretary, and other members of the congregation.

“That portion of the church was constructed in 1851-52,” said Devin Pettit, a member of the church and its unofficial historian. “I don’t know how old the cross is.”

Pieces of the cross placed together on the floor of the church office measured about 4 1/2 feet in length.

More here-

http://qctimes.com/news/local/article_32c6269e-a430-11df-8583-001cc4c03286.html

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