Does Being Struck by Lightning Increase Chances of Getting Hit Again
A Florida woman became the 18th person in the U.S. and the seventh person in the land to dice after being struck by lightning this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Norma Woeller, 49, was stripping the bark off a tree in her yard Sabbatum when a bolt struck her, ABC affiliate WCJB in Gainesville reported. She died the next solar day. The tree whose bark Woeller was stripping had been struck past lightning sometime last week.
Over the by decade, an average of 25 people take been killed by lightning strikes in the U.S. between Jan. ane and September two each year, NOAA said. Florida averages v lightning deaths per year.
Just many of those deaths are preventable, and experts say all that's needed is more sensation and for some mutual myths around lightning to be shattered. For example, they say, during a lightning storm, it'south best to go abroad from trees as rapidly as possible. Woeller was the seventh lightning fatality to exist continuing near or under a tree this yr when she was struck.
Ahead, here are some other things you need to know.
A man watches lightning from a concourse at Kauffman stadium during a severe storm before a baseball, Aug. 28, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo.
Charlie Riedel/AP
MYTH: Very few people survive being struck past lightning.
FACT: More people survive than yous would think, but some are left with life-long debilitating injuries.
Studies accept plant that in the United States, ix out of every 10 people struck by lightning survive.
This is partly because much of the free energy of lightning strike has already dissipated by the time it reaches people's bodies, and partly considering much of the current flows over the torso instead of into it.
Most chiefly, people survive beingness struck by lightning because a bystander initiates CPR. People normally don't survive a lightning strike without outside help.
"The biggest risk is only that it stops your heart," said John Jensenius, a lightning prophylactic specialist with the National Weather Service. "So role of the key to survival is the administration of CPR later a lightning strike."
Just surviving is only function of the battle, as some people experience long-term wellness effects.
"Really, that'southward simply office of the story because many people are left with lifelong debilitating injuries — from headaches and nausea to loss of memory," he added.
MYTH: You can lessen your chances of being struck by lightning past crouching down or lying flat on the footing.
FACT: Crouching or lying flat is unlikely to protect you.
This myth is understandable because information technology draws from a well-known fact: lightning strikes higher objects more oft. The Empire Country Building, for case, is struck by lightning an average of 23 times a yr, according to the National Weather Service.
But here'southward why going closer to the basis won't brand much of a departure: But a small portion of all lightning strikes on humans are direct strikes, Mary Ann Cooper, a quondam professor of the University of Illinois and an international medical say-so on lightning injuries, told ABC News.
"The vast bulk of deaths are caused by ground current, where lightning hits a altitude away and then travels through the ground in all directions," Cooper said. "And if you're close enough to the point it striking the footing, then you get an electrical accuse."
Your best bet, she said, is to caput inside the nearest building.
Lightning strikes, Aug. 24, 2018, in Odessa, Texas.
Jacob Ford/Odessa American via AP
MYTH: If you're wearing rubber-soled shoes, they will draw off the electric current, and if you're wearing metal objects, you lot'll be hit.
FACT: 'Lightning strikes where it wants to strike.'
At that place is no style your attire has any effect on the direction up to 2 one thousand thousand volts of electricity takes, Jensenius said.
"There'southward kind of a myth out at that place that diverse things attract lightning or protect yous," Jensenius added. "Lightning strikes where it wants to strike."
And wearing a metallic bracelet doesn't mean lightning volition electrocute you.
"Typically, people may have fire marks, but usually those are considering lightning simply heats up the metallic and that leaves burn down marks," Jensenius explained.
MYTH: Once y'all're inside the house, yous're totally safe from lightning.
FACT: Fifty-fifty inside the business firm, you need to go along away from things that conduct electricity.
Unfortunately, beingness inside a edifice isn't always enough to protect yous, said Cooper.
That'southward because one of the means lightning strikes people is by transmitting it through something you lot're holding.
"So, for instance, you're in your house, you're washing the dishes and yous put your hand on the faucet," Cooper explained. "Lightning hits somewhere a distance away, travels through the water pipes and through the h2o and that's how it'll go you. Chances are, you're not getting that much energy because information technology'southward being dissipated forth the way, merely you may nevertheless get this jolt. You lot may even get thrown beyond the kitchen."
Which is why, during a thunderstorm, it's a good idea to stay within the house but away from corded phones, electrical appliances, wires, TV cables, computers, plumbing, metal doors and windows, according to the National Weather condition Service.
Lightning is seen during a tempest over the roofs in Tours, France, Aug. 29, 2018.
Guillaume Souvant/AFP/Getty Images
MYTH: If you lot touch a lightning strike victim, you lot could be electrocuted.
FACT: It'southward perfectly condom to impact a lightning strike victim as yous administer first aid.
This might exist the most dangerous of all the myths, said Cooper, because CPR plays a central office in helping salvage victims.
Most people struck past lightning crave immediate medical attention because they're likely to accept suffered cardiac arrest, so information technology'due south of import for people to know that the human trunk does not conduct electricity.
"People practise not retain an electrical charge," said Cooper. "They are safety to touch, so others should go ahead and administer CPR because that's going to save lives."
For more than information on lightning strike safety, visit the National Weather's Service's website.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/experts-debunk-common-myths-struck-lightning/story?id=57475177
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