Lightning Strikes

All thunderstorms produce lightning and, in the United States alone, an average of 80 people are killed and hundreds more are injured each year. To avoid getting struck, take the following precautions.

Understand that if you hear thunder, you risk being struck by lightning if you are outdoors. Lightning can strike as far as 10 miles from any rainfall or storm clouds.
Keep an eye on the sky when participating in outdoor activities, or planning them. Also make sure to listen to the weather forecast before you go out.
Do not resume activities until at least 30 minutes since the last thunder or lightning was seen or heard.
If you hear thunder or see lightning get to a safe place at once. The safest places are inside a sturdy building. But if you don’t have one around…
- A hard topped metal vehicle is ok, just be sure to keep the windows closed and not to touch any of the metal in the car.
- If you’re in the woods, stand under a cluster of smaller trees that are close together and assume the following position. Crouch down on the balls of your feet, put your hands on your knees and bend your head down. Make yourself the smallest target possible and minimize your contact with the ground. NEVER lie flat on the ground, no matter where you are.
- If you’re in a place where there are hills and ravines, move into a ravine and assume the position above.
- If you are in a field assume the position above.
Stay away from things like:
- Tall isolated trees
- Small shacks/sheds/unstable buildings
- Towers/utility poles
- Stages
- Boats, pools, and anything else in or very close to open water.
- Small metal vehicles like scooters, bikes, motorcycles, and golf carts.
- Anything metal like bleachers, fences, rails, scaffolding, pipes etc. lightning/electricity can travel a long way through metal.
- Clotheslines are also good transmitters of electricity.
- Golf courses, golf clubs, carts, metal golf cleats etc. every year golfers are killed and injured because they do not get off the courses in time.
- Other people. If you are in a group spread out several yards away from each other.
If you feel your hair stand on end, beware! You may be about to be struck by lighting.

What To Do if someone is struck.

A lightning strike has a different effect on the body than an electric shock and therefore is treated differently. Unlike electric shock, lightning has less effect on the internal nerves and muscles and the people struck carry no electrical charge, which means that they are safe to touch. Similar to electrical shock, the person may be mildly or severely burned. Strike victims need immediate attention and aid, and those that appear “dead” can often be revived and should be attended to first. Quickly (but not to roughly) shake all victims lying on the ground, if they respond in any way move on to the next victim. If people are breathing on their own they will probably be ok, so lay them on their side in the recovery position. Even if they are unconscious they should be alright. You also want to move the victims to a safer place, as the storm is still a threat as Lightning CAN strike the same place twice.

Lightning fatalities are usually due to cardiac arrest, or a heart attack. By performing CPR, or rescue breathing, depending on whether you can find a pulse or not. If you have several victims at hand, attend to those without a pulse first. If you are not the only person giving aid, or the victims are breathing on their own, call 911 as soon as possible. If you have several victims not breathing, or without a pulse, move them close together and go between the two, giving CPR to both of them. The people who are not breathing should recover quickly and be able to breath on their own after a few minutes of rescue breathing.

It is also good to know that the lightning bolt does not have to hit you to kill you. If the ground is wet, the electricity will travel out a short distance in waves that can affect those standing on the ground. People can be killed by this and are to be treated the same as if they had been directly struck by lightning.

Although most lightning strike victims recover many are left with disabilities, which is why it is so important to heed the warning signs of an oncoming storm.