Over the past ten years, nearly 300 people are killed by lightning and ten times that amount are injured according to officials with the Division of Emergency Management. It is lightning safety awareness week, and this weather phenomenon can even injure you whether indoors or outdoors.
Lexington Emergency Management officials says one-third of lightning injuries occur indoors.
Men are five times more likely than women to be struck by lightning. It may seem that lightning strikes themselves are rare, but the fires and deaths they cause are a very real problem.
Louisville National Weather Service Meteorologist Ryan Sharp says although only 10% of people who get hit by lightning die, the rest are left with lifelong injuries. “On average, over the last couple of years, lightning is actually one of the weather threats that kills more people than tornadoes. It’s one of those silent killers. It usually kills only one person at a time just because it strikes at a distance.”
Sharp says that lightning is a silent killer, accounting for more deaths each year than tornadoes, "The amount of voltage that is running through your body if you get struck in the right way. I’d say that about ten percent of people who get struck by lightning die from it. The others have some crippling injuries. Go inside, try to be in a completely enclosed building. If that’s not available, then you want to get inside your car or something that will really be able to protect you from the lightning.”
Sharp makes it a point to avoid being outside during a storm, as whether you are in a field or on a hill, lightning will hit you first if you are the tallest thing in the area. “Most people wait until the last minute before they seek shelter or they wait for the storm to get as close as possible. Avoid the mindset of finishing the game, catching a fish, or round of golf; then you can avoid the death or crippling injury that lightning can cause,” he says.
