b.
73% of casualties occurred in the afternoon [noon-7pm].
c.
Nat Center for Health Stats (NCHS): highest number of deaths in Florida and Texas.
d.
From population normalized data, Wyoming has the highest lightning casualty rate
[0.196/100,000 inhabitants, followed by New Mexico, than Arkansas and Florida
[0.120/100,000]. This data changes frequently...
Who
and
what
activities:
1.
NCHS from `68-'85 shows the highest mortality risk from age 10-19(men < 40) and are
predominantly males.
2.
From Colorado data, 66% of incidents had only one casualty; with max number of casualties
in an incident were 12.
3.
Data from Colo., more people were casualties during recreation (52%), than during
employment (25%). In Florida, employment was 38% and recreation 32%.
4.
More people in Colorado were lightning victims near or at the summit of a mountain ridge
(18%) and the vicinity of trees (16%)...in Florida, a location close to water was the most
common (25%), followed by trees (22%) and transportation (10%).
5.
Analyses for Colorado and Florida show a high number of victims on a golf course, however,
the golf-related frequency is equaled or exceeded by several other activities and locations.
6.
Military data from '98-'01 showed 142 lightning strikes caused 350 service member injuries
and one death.
In October 1997, NOAA published findings of some 35 years of USA
lightning statistics...the report highlights are summarized below:
1) Location:
40%
unreported
27% open fields and recreation areas
14% under trees
8%
water-related
5% golf/golf under trees
3% heavy equipment and machinery related
2.4% telephone related (not cell phone).
2) Gender of Victims: 84% male; 16% female
3) Months of most incidents: June 21%; July 30%; August 22%
4) Days of week of most incidents: Sun/Wed/Sat
5) Time of Day: 2-6pm
6) Number of Victims: one-91%; two or more- 9%.
7) Deaths by state: FL, MI, TX, NY, and TN
8) Injuries by state: FL, MI, PA, NC, and NY.
MMWR. Lightning associated deaths. 1980-1995.
·
1318 deaths due to lightning
·
Greatest number: FL, TX.
