Technician holes up in Ohio cave to escape meteor

Technician holes up in Ohio cave to escape meteor

Wednesday, August 18, 1999

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CALDWELL - When a Kennedy Space Center computer programmer thought the sky was falling, he headed for a cave in southeast Ohio.

Sheriff's deputies responding to a report of an unfamiliar car found Lloyd Albright, along with camping equipment, dried food and 16 guns, said Noble County Sheriff Landon Smith.

"He very sincerely thought there was a meteor that was going to hit the Atlantic Ocean and cause a tidal wave 200 feet high," Smith said. "He was trying to hide from this meteor. It was going to go up the coast, take Florida for sure and there would be water all over Georgia. The peach trees were going to be covered up."

Albright was found the evening of Aug. 10. He thought the meteor was going to hit at 4 a.m. the next day and had been in the cave since at least Aug. 8, Smith said yesterday.

"I thought it was kind of amazing that he was enough of a believer and had enough of a fear that he was willing to come north to get away from it," Smith said. Smith said finding Albright's car, which was filled with guns and ammunition, led deputies to search nearby woods. The guns were legal, Smith said, but raised concerns that someone might be in danger.

After heading down two steep embankments, deputies found Albright in a cave 20 feet deep.

Albright had been sleeping on a cot, drinking water that dripped through the cave ceiling and keeping food cold in a pool of water.

He was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, then released after posting bond following a night in the County Jail, Smith said. He was escorted to the interstate and told to head home.

"He was nothing but pleasant and easy to get along with," said Smith, who added that Albright selected Ohio as a refuge because he had visited the state once before.

Albright, 47, who works on space shuttle data processing, said he was thankful for Smith's help.

Albright said the meteor strike, from fragments of Comet Lee, could occur any time within nine years.

NASA said the closest Comet Lee would come to Earth is 77 million miles by the end of September.