OKC Woman's Car Struck By Lightning

An Oklahoma City woman will never look at storm clouds the same way again after she says she survived a lightning strike to her car while driving down the road.

Lakeydra Houston was driving along I-240 around 10 a.m. Monday when she saw the lightning hit out of her review mirror.

"All of a sudden I saw flashes of lights coming from everywhere and my car just shook," said Houston.  "Me and my baby were screaming."

But the lightning strike to Houston's car wasn't even the scariest part.

"[My] horn was going off, the radio was going off, the lights were flashing, my taillight, my brake lights, everything was just going crazy," she recalls.  

With Houston's 11-month-old son sitting in the back seat she started smelling and seeing smoke. And she couldn't get out of the car.

"Everything was going crazy and I kept pushing the button to unlock it and it wouldn't unlock at all. I tried to open the door and it wouldn't open."

That's when Houston called 911.

"My car got hit by lightning," she told dispatchers.  "I can't get out of my car."

Finally, another driver stopped to help and was able to open the door from the outside. Houston and her son were taken to the hospital, but are fine. Her car, however, is not.

It is a total loss. Mechanics say out of the vehicle's 100 systems, only four work. The key won't even come out of the ignition. And Houston says she will never look at a storm the same way again.

"I'm just going to stay in the house from now on."

Experts say if you are hit by lightning while in your car, do not touch anything metal or metallic that's attached to your car and put your hands in your lap.