Posted on 07/10/2004 7:25:54 AM PDT by dukeman
MANATEE COUNTY -- Off in the distance, it looked just like the hundreds of other storms that blow across the state every summer.
"I figured we had at least another 20 minutes," said Ned Russo, who was standing outside a Manatee County house talking to his friend, Frank "Buddy" Sances, as the thunderstorm approached Wednesday.
Moments later he heard a loud clap and was knocked from his feet. When he recovered, he found Sances unconscious, the victim of a lightning strike.
Russo tried to revive him, as did paramedics who arrived minutes later. But Sances, 42, was pronounced dead at Manatee Memorial Hospital.
"It wasn't even raining," said Russo as he tried to hold back tears Friday. "It's unbelievable."
Sances' death was the second from lightning in Florida this year. A golfer was struck in Fort Myers in April, under clear skies with the storm more than five miles away.
The deaths are a reminder of how dangerous lightning can be, even before the storms arrive, at this time of year in Florida.
This past week, four other people were struck in Central and Southwest Florida, none fatally. Two were hit Monday in Hardee County, another was hit Tuesday in Pasco County and another Thursday in Hernando County.
The odds of being struck by lighting are 1 in 3,000 for the country, but 1 in 1,000 in Florida. The odds of surviving the strike are about 1 in 10, according to the National Weather Service.
The weather service estimates that every square mile of the greater Tampa Bay region is struck by 50 lightning bolts a year.
That's no surprise to the people who live in the rural, residential Manatee County area where Sances was struck, near State Road 64 and Interstate 75.
Most houses are on flat, empty lots that span a couple acres, making the homes likely targets.
A few days ago lightning blew out a transformer at the neighborhood's edge, said Larry Huffstutler, who lives around the corner from the house where Sances was killed, in the 6000 block of 13th Avenue East.
Huffstutler said he lost a pine tree to lightning about five years ago, and his house was hit about 10 years ago. Another neighbor said her TV ignited during a storm several years ago.
The sky turned cloudy with thunder and lightning on Wednesday, neighbors said, but rain never fell.
Friday, friends and family struggled to understand the sudden loss of a man who joked with his nephews, gave thoughtful gifts and always wanted to help others.
"It shows you just how precious life is," said friend Steve Tash, who hired Sances at his Sarasota company, Florida Window Master & Siding. "When something like this happens, it makes you think about your own mortality. It's just staggering."
Sances, a carpenter, moved from Massachusetts to Sarasota a couple of years ago to be closer to his family.
Russo is also a carpenter and was working at the Manatee County home Wednesday when Sances stopped by to visit.
As the storm approached, Russo said, he stopped talking to Sances and climbed onto the roof to secure a tarp in anticipation of rain. Sances headed toward his red truck. That's when the lightning hit.
Russo said a burnt smell lingered after the strike. He climbed down from the roof to give CPR to Sances, who didn't have a pulse.
"It's so hard to believe it actually happened," Russo said. "I don't know why it didn't kill us both."
A lightning bolt discharges about 100 million volts of electricity. The voltage that runs your lights is 110 volts.
Sances' mother, Ann Velliquette, said she never took seriously the threat of being struck by lightning.
"I will now," she said. "It's just one of those things you never think will happen to you."
And how expensive would it be to stud the place with lightning rods- say, 60-70' tall (it is described as flat area) - on every couple acres or so?
By my calculations, that means 90,000 people (based on a 300,000,000 population) per year die in lightning strikes. That sounds a bit much to me.
Florida is the lightning strike capital of the world.....
Waiting for the break of day
Searching for something to say
Dancing lights againnst the sky
Giving up I close my eyes
Sitting cross-legged on the floor
25 or 6 to 4
Staring blindly into space
Getting up to splash my face
Wanting just to stay awake
Wondering how much I can take
Should I try to do some more
25 or 6 to 4
Feeling like I ought to sleep
Spinning room is sinking deep
Searching for something to say
Waiting for the break of day
25 or 6 to 4
25 or 6 to 4
You and I had the same reaction to this. When lightning (and tragedy generally) hits, it often is literally a "bolt out of the blue." You need to have your spiritual stuff in order because any given day could be your End Times.
Hmmm Florida has 16 million people having a one in a thousand chance of being struck by lightening. That means 16,000 are struck and 90% (14,000) die. Two have died so far according to the article, so there is ALOT of catching up to do.
Actually I believe the stats are WAY off. Just goes to show, question everything.
See my post #8, based on 16 million. You are right to question "facts".
Perhaps they meant a "lifetime chance." If so, they should qualify their figures.
Yep, especially in the summer. We get big thunderheads that boil up from the interior of the state and then move westward toward the Gulf nearly every day. The clouds are sometimes as dark as the blackest ink you've ever seen. If the rain does get to your spot, it'll be a pounding downpour. Then, and this always surprises visitors and new residents, the sky turns quickly sunny and blue. The storm remnants often turn into beautiful Gulf sunsets.
Even so, assuming a 100 year life span, 900 should be expected to be struck and 810 should die.
According to CDC, the average is 82 deaths per year in the United States. 100 years would net you 8200 deaths and assuming a static population, that's one in about 35,600 (if my arithmetic is right ... always a big if!).
Mr. Sances has a 100% chance of not seeing the sun today. I wonder what his thoughts were when he set off to work that morning?
> ... stud the place with lightning rods ...
Unless you build a closed grid (or Faraday cage), there's
still no assurance that the lightning will pick the rods
over you, although a tall metal tower nearby improves your
odds.
The NWS mantra I hear on our weather radio is:
"If you can hear thunder, you can get struck by lightning."
And you can hear thunder long before the clouds and
rain arrive.
5-mile strikes seem to be fairly common. If you can see
the lightning, and you can count off less than 25 seconds
between flash and bang, that lightning was less than
5 miles away.
Safety advice often repeated here in SW Florida.
Back in 1986, a professional acquintance of mine (not a friend, really) was walking down the beach above the waterline on a fine summer day. Just as he passed beside a woman heading in the opposite direction, a lightning bolt zapped them both dead. The sky was blue and the only clouds were in the distance. I can't remember from the newspaper story whether witnesses in the vicinity had heard thunder rumbling before the strike. Regardless, it was a bolt out of the blue.
p.s. The victim was a not particularly well-liked local trial lawyer.
| Rank | State | Number of deaths |
Number of injuries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Florida | 345 | 1,178 |
| 2. | North Carolina | 165 | 464 |
| 3. | Texas | 164 | 334 |
| 4. | New York | 128 | 449 |
| 5. | Tennessee | 124 | 349 |
| 6. | Louisiana | 116 | 231 |
| 7. | Maryland | 116 | 134 |
| 8. | Ohio | 115 | 430 |
| 9. | Arkansas | 110 | 245 |
| 10. | Pennsylvania | 109 | 535 |
5.56mm
This happens more often than you think. A lifelong friend of mine was bank finshing at lake Monroe reservoir about five years ago, near a boat launch ramp. He saw the skys getting dark and packed up his gear to leave. As he was placing his gear in the bed of his pick up, which was pretty much the last vehicle left on the flat launch ramp parking lot, he was struck by lightening and killed instantly. Just another 20 seconds and he would have been safe in the cab of his truck.
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