NEWTON, Texas — A Newton man is grateful to be alive after being struck by lightning during Tuesday's severe weather.
Dale Dean's lumber truck got stuck in a rural area along FM 1414.
Dean has hauled timber for 16 years and says Tuesday started like any other.
"All that flashed through my mind that man you're not going to be able to do this no more. Like man. I kind of tear up when I talk about it like that," Dean said.
His truck got stuck in mud during Tuesday's storms. He went to attach a skidder to tow his stuck truck when lightning hit.
"I got out and was going to hook the cable up and as I began to put it on my truck, the lightning struck and it strike me through the cable and it knocked me about three feet over in the ditch. It was a real scary moment for me," Dean said.
Dean's co-worker witnessed the whole thing.
"He saw the flash of lightning, and the fire that came out of the cable. He asked me if I was ok and I said no I can't move. I can't feel anything. Everything went numb. I couldn't move my arms. I couldn't move my legs," Dean said.
Dean's partner called their supervisor William Tyson for help transporting Dean to the hospital.
"I guess first thing I didn't know if he was dead or alive. So, proud to see him standing up when I got there," Tyson said.
On the way to the hospital, Dean called his wife, Beverly.
"Beverly I, and she said we'll let me call you right back. And I quickly looked at my coworker and I said 'oh my goodness i'm about to die and she just said she's gonna call me back,'" Dean said.
Once at the hospital in Jasper, the doctors were stunned to see Dean walking.
They told him since the lightning traveled through his body he should have had a heart attack.
"On our way home from the hospital yesterday, I reached over and I grabbed his hand, and I thought, if it would've been different I would have been coming home by myself," Beverly Dean said.
The odds of being struck by lightning in any given year are one in a million, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dean says he is blessed to be alive and credits God for his survival.