Source: mother dies, her child and dog were injured
Found on: 2022-08-20 00:24:44
A Florida woman died Thursday as she was in a park waiting for her son to leave a nearby school after she was struck by lightning, authorities said. “Lightning struck a tree near Trotwood Park in Winter Springs around 2:20 pm,” police said in a statement.
The child and pet that were with the woman were treated by medical professionals and are in good condition, police revealed to the media.
Neither the name of the victim nor any of his details were released.
Parents visit this park quite frequently to pick up their children and meet their elementary and middle school peers, as well as chat with other parents after school is over for the day, so it’s a very busy area.
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Winter Springs, a city of about 38,000 people northeast of Orlando, had multiple lightning strikes at the same time, but no other people were reported injured, Seminole County Fire spokeswoman Doreen Overstreet said.
Although it is not an “excessive lightning” precautions should be taken, say the authorities
The National Weather Service had warned of thunderstorms and lightning in the area Thursday, specifically in areas like this Orlando community.
In fact, there were at least 60 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the Winter Springs area between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. (that is, about one flash per minute) “something that is not considered excessive, since an excess of lightning would be about 12 lightning strikes per minute,” said the chief meteorologist of the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Tony Cristaldi.
“But it’s those storms near the beginning of the precipitation and those that don’t produce a lot of lightning, that can be more dangerous, because when there is more lightning, people are more likely to take shelter,” he told the media.
However, he also stressed that “any electrical storm can produce lightning, and any lightning can cause injuries” as was the case in the death of a soldier and nine others who were injured in Georgia, so people are recommended to always take due precautions.
In this sense, the authorities maintain that people should not take shelter under the trees when there are lightning strikes in the area, but rather shelter in a closed building or in an all-metal vehicle with a rigid roof, in case there is no building available, says the Weather Service.
The deadly lightning strike in Florida came two weeks after three people were killed when lightning struck a tree in Washington, DC, in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.