Property damage from lightning is covered by standard homeowners insurance for your home, and the comprehensive portion of an auto policy for your car—but bodily harm from lightning isn't easily remedied.
During a thunderstorm, it's best to take shelter in a house, other structure or a hard-topped, fully enclosed vehicle. But as one of these options may not be available to you, your safety and wellbeing may depend on knowing the difference between these lightning myths and the facts.
Next steps links: Learn more about protecting your home against lightning damage. Myth 2 — Lightning only strikes the tallest objects.
Myth 3 — If you're stuck in a thunderstorm, being under a tree is better than no shelter at all. Myth 4 — If you don't see rain or clouds, you're safe. Myth 5 — A car's rubber tires will protect you from lightning Myth 6 — If you're outside in a storm, lie flat on the ground.
Myth 7 — If you touch a lightning victim, you'll be electrocuted. Myth 8 — Wearing metal on your body attracts lightning. Myth 9 — A house will always keep you safe from lightning. Myth 10 — Surge suppressors can protect a home against lightning. Because the ground current affects a much larger area than the other causes of lightning casualties, the ground current causes the most lightning deaths and injuries.
Ground current also kills many farm animals. The greater the distance between contact points, the greater the potential for death or serious injury. Because large farm animals have a relatively large body-span, ground current from a nearby lightning strike is often fatal to livestock.
Lightning can travel long distances in wires or other metal surfaces. Metal does not attract lightning, but it provides a path for the lightning to follow. Most indoor lightning casualties and some outdoor casualties are due to conduction.
Whether inside or outside, anyone in contact with anything connected to metal wires, plumbing, or metal surfaces that extend outside is at risk. This includes anything that plugs into an electrical outlet, water faucets and showers, corded phones, and windows and doors. Streamers develop as the downward-moving leader approaches the ground. Typically, only one of the streamers makes contact with the leader as it approaches the ground and provides the path for the bright return stroke; however, when the main channel discharges, so do all the other streamers in the area.
Ringing in the ears. Problems processing new information and remembering old information. Some of the most drastic lightning strike medical effects show up months or even years after the lightning injury. We refer to these as delayed symptoms. Lightning strikes can cause serious delayed symptoms in victims, including:. Personality changes.
Difficulty carrying a conversation. Chronic pain. A large problem lightning strike victims face with delayed symptoms is making the connection between the lightning strike and the side effect. These lightning strike medical effects could take years to present themselves. These delayed symptoms have extremely disrupting natures. If someone you know is a lightning strike survivor, make sure you keep an eye out for these symptoms.
Remember, it can take years for side effects like these to show up. Unfortunately, the most serious medical side effect of lightning strikes is death. Lightning kills people by stopping their hearts.
As we briefly mentioned before, lightning strikes have a very high amplitude of 30kV. Our bodies are not equipped to handle that much charge. That stops the heart. The chance of being struck by lightning is just 1 in 10, The chance of winning the Mega Millions in 1 in ,, To better understand the odds of being struck, you should know how many people are struck by lightning annually. This average comes from a year time span between It is also important to note that these are all the reported lightning fatalities.
There could be more that are unreported. Not everyone that gets struck by lightning dies. Lightning injures far more people than it kills. In the U. Experts agree that a safe annual estimate for deaths worldwide is 24, For injuries, that number jumps to , each year. If someone near you is struck by lightning the most important thing you can do is act quickly. It is important to note that lightning strike victims do not carry an electrical charge. Since lightning strike victims are safe to touch, you should approach them immediately and get medical help as soon as possible.
Here are the steps you should take if someone is struck by lightning:. People struck by lightning may suffer cardiac arrest. Immediate and aggressive resuscitation greatly improves survival rates. It is safe to touch lightning victims. The body does not keep a charge. If the person is unconscious and does not appear to be breathing normally, has no breath, or no pulse, use an automated external defibrillator AED if one is on hand.
Do not removed burned clothing unless necessary. If the victim is conscious and needs treatment for shock, lay them down with their head slightly lower than their torso and legs. If the victim does not seem to be in shock and can move, move to a lightning safe shelter like a grounded building or vehicle. Once there, they will examine the victim for internal or neurological injuries and burns. Acting quickly after someone is struck by lightning can save lives.
You can see the importance of a quick response in the video below. A man was walking his dogs when lightning struck him, knocking him out and sending him crashing into the concrete. Luckily, people nearby rushed to his aid. You can read the full story on ABC News.
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