Fall River’s Former Mayor ‘So Shook Up’ After Lightning Strikes Inches Away

What started as a calm, partly cloudy day on the SouthCoast quickly changed by mid-afternoon on August 26. The sky darkened, battering the region with heavy rain, hail, thunder and lightning.

Visibly rattled Fall River businessman Will Flanagan had a too-close-for-comfort experience with the latter while parked outside the city's Starbucks.

"This is no joke. Lightning literally just struck my vehicle," he told his Facebook followers in a live video moments after the strike. "I'm sitting here at Starbucks and there's this huge flash of light in my car and then a big boom."

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Flanagan, former Fall River mayor and an attorney, later said the lightning might not have hit his car directly but it was extremely close -- and close enough to Starbucks to set off the building's alarms.

"I'm so shook up by it," Flanagan said. "Wow. I've never experienced anything like that in my life."

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ABC6 meteorologist Cecy Del Carmen said the severe weather would likely threaten the SouthCoast through sunset, bringing hail, damaging winds, heavy downpours and the potential for flooding. Conditions were expected to improve for Tuesday, August 27.

Flanagan, who runs Cosmpolitan Dispensary on Hartwell Street, said his car lit up "like somebody turned the lights on."

Signing off for his followers, he didn't mince words.

"Mother Nature," he said. "Holy (expletive)."