What to Do When Lightning Strikes

Planning for the worst may be the best protection, experts say

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, June 6 (HealthDay News) -- Imagine you're a coach with a dugout full of Little Leaguers, and a storm strikes. You hear thunder. Many parents dropped off their kids and aren't there, and the school next to the field is locked. How do you get the kids to safety?

That's just the type of situation that Katie Walsh, director of athletic training education at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., hopes people will start to prepare for. "Lightning is about 100 percent avoidable, but you have to have a plan," she said.

Each year, dozens of people are killed by lightning strikes in the United States, according to the National Weather Service, part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That risk goes up considerably in the summer, when lightning-laced thunderstorms are more apt to occur and when more people are on the beach, in the mountains or on athletic fields and golf courses.

Walsh's university has a plan and has had to use it. "We have a football stadium that holds 50,000 people, and we had to evacuate it," she said. "As much as people gripe about it, I'd rather have to evacuate the stadium than have one person hurt. I want people to be safe."

Walsh said they were lucky because there's an indoor coliseum next to the football stadium. But that's not always the case, especially for the myriad of youth sporting events that occupy so many fields in warmer-weather months.

"Lightning season is April to November in many areas, and it's common between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., which is often when people are playing," she said. "So, have a plan. Is there a school bus that could be parked by the field that the coaches could take children to if a storm pops up?"

John Jensenius, a lightning safety specialist with the National Weather Service, also advocates having a plan -- one that always starts with checking the weather. "That way you can postpone or cancel the activity if there's a possibility of thunderstorms," he said. "If you go ahead with your activity, stay in tune to the forecast and keep an eye on the sky. If you hear thunder, the storm is already close enough for lightning to strike. Seek shelter right away."

Safe shelters include any building with plumbing and wiring, cars with hard tops, trucks, RVs and buses. On the not-safe list is anything that's open to the outside, such as dugouts, bus stops, convertibles, and even open garages.

"People think if they're not getting wet, they can't get struck, but if you're outside, you're at risk," said Walsh, who recently chaired a group writing a new position statement on lightning safety for the National Athletic Trainers' Association.

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