Lightning Safety
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Lightning can be deadly and disruptive by often knocking out power, sparking fires and damaging or destroying electronic devices.
“We have system in place once the lightning were to strike to shut the system off to protect the homeowner also protect our system,” said Alabama Power Area Manager Mike Jordan
The surge protectors that we use to protect our laptops, video game consoles and big screen televisions only provide minimal protection. Randy Jones, the owner of Trustworthy Electric say he finds that lightning can destroy surge protectors all the time. “Where those soft electronics are there’s most of the time a plug strip there and we have not seen one stop the surge it just jumps those I just know we go in and there are devices that have been burnt up and or now faulty and they were plugged into a plug strip,” said Jones.
Instead of using surge protectors to protect electronic devices Jones suggest people use whole house surge protection and point of use protection devices. “When lightning hits it shunts or would you say clamps down on the surge and diverts it to itself and stops it from going to your electrical system which is the pathway to your home,” said Jones.
According to the National Weather Service more than 20 people were killed last year due to lightning strikes and 4 of those deaths occurred in Alabama. Kirk Barrett, the Chief Operations Officer of Haynes Ambulance responds to lightning strike victims every year in Alabama. “Annually we do respond to a handful of lightning strikes in the central Alabama area we’ve answered several we’ve had both fatalities do to lightning strikes and we’ve had some success stories where people being able to revive ’em,” said Barrett. According to Barrett, the lightning strike victims that he has responded to in Alabama were outside, standing near a tree or near a fence. “If they would’ve been inside they would have been o.k,” said Barrett.
Meteorologist often say”when thunder roars get indoors.” Even if you’re
indoors you should delay certain activities such as being on the phone
or on the computer, and even washing dishes. This will help you to
avoid being shocked or electrocuted. If you’re outside during a thunderstorm, keep running or walking until you can reach a safe place because crouching to the ground will not significantly lower your chances of being struck especially if you’re near a tree. If you encounter a lightning strike victim, the myth that you can not touch
them is false. “that is not true at all you can touch someone if they’ve been struck by
lightning it’s not going to have any effect on you…all it does is put a
dysrhythmia to their heart and that causes their heart not to function
properly,” said Barrett.
“What you want to do if you come up on or if you see someone or a bystander
see somebody that’s had a lightning strike or suffered from a lightning
strike is check for a pulse early cpr saves lives the american heart
association has proven that.”
Barrett also says that providing CPR to a lightning strike victim until help arrives is critical to the survivability of until emergency medical staff can arrive.
Whether you are inside or caught outside during a thunderstorm, the professionals across the River Region that deal with lightning annually offer this advice for lightning safety.
“Assume that all wires all lines on the ground are energized and dangerous,” said Jordan.
“You can’t stop the event you can’t stop the act of god so it is what you need to do to maximize your protection,” said Jones
“try to stay indoors during storms,” said Barrett.
