Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990 TAG: 9004260056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TRACY VAN MOORLEHEM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Gilbert, who has studied lightning injury and death, was one of nine speakers who addressed the Severe Storm Awareness Conference Tuesday and Wednesday at the Roanoke Marriott.
Lightning, a misunderstood phenomenon, accounts for about 100 deaths and 250 injuries each year in the United States.
There have been 53 recorded lightning deaths in Virginia since 1916.
Contrary to common belief, a lightning strike is not the same as a high-voltage electrocution, Gilbert said. The average electrocution carries from 1,000 to 350,000 volts of alternating-current electricity. A lightning bolt ranges from a million to a billion volts of direct current electricity.
The lightning bolt packs a charge strong enough to throw victims several feet, shred their clothes, and literally knock their socks and shoes off.
Gilbert said injuries caused by this extremely high charge are quite different from those caused by electrocution. Victims of lightning strikes are less likely to have large areas of internal and external burns. Instead, victims often experience heart and respiratory paralysis and superficial burns, she said.
The heart usually starts again spontaneously, but many victims die because their respiratory centers have been temporarily paralyzed and they cannot breathe.
Gilbert said most people don't know when lightning is a threat. "If you can hear thunder," she said, "you are in the range of a potential lightning strike," because lightning can travel up to 10 miles in any direction from the storm cloud.
Gilbert warned against using appliances and the telephone during an electrical storm because lightning can travel through wires, water faucets, or a sink or tub with metal pipes.
About 30 percent of lightning-related deaths occur in groups of two or more victims. Often one or two people are killed while several others are stunned and injured by the lightning strike, Gilbert said. Lightning can "splash" off of inanimate objects and hit people, she added.
The safest place to be during an electrical storm is in your home, Gilbert said. If you are away from your home, a car is a relatively safe place to be.
The worst place to be is in water or near a tall object, she said, because lightning gravitates toward the tallest object in an area. If there is no protection, Gilbert said to crouch on the ground with your legs tightly together, but do not lay flat on the ground.
The conference, held during Virginia Severe Storm Awareness Week, was designed to educate emergency services personnel about weather trends and effects and was sponsored by the National Weather Service, the Virginia Department of Emergency Services and the Roanoke Valley Emergency Managers Committee. Jim Belville, Director of the National Weather Service Washington Forecast Office, said this is the event's second year.
by CNB