Storm season coming; know the weather dangers

April 26--MOULTRIE, Ga. -- Many people have childhood memories of being yelled at by lifeguards or parents urging them to get out of the water if they were swimming when a dark cloud approached.

Similarly, officials warn that taking a shower or washing dishes during a thunderstorm also can result in a jolt that could be fatal.

Washing dishes or taking a bath or shower during a storm can be as deadly as swimming when lightning is flashing, according to weather website AccuWeather.

The South is entering the season when thunderstorms can be frequent and sometimes develop quickly.

Lightning can travel through metal pipes -- and even water in plastic pipes, according to John Jensenius, lightning specialist for the National Weather Service.

"Even if lightning hits the ground it can follow water," said Russell Moody, Colquitt County emergency management director. "It's a good conductor of electricity."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that lightning kills more people than hurricanes and tornadoes in the United States.

The estimated 100,000 thunder storms in the country each year killed some 1,318 people from 1980 through 1995, a CDC study said. Of those, 1,125, or 85 percent, were male, and 896 -- 68 percent -- were ages 15 to 44, and highest among those ages 15 to 19.

Florida had the highest number of deaths, the study said.

A lightning strike on a trailer carrying farmworkers sent some 10 or so to the hospital in Moultrie several years ago, but none of their injures were fatal.

Storms also can be dangerous to property.

On Aug. 13, 2017, lightning strikes caused some $63,497 damage to county property, including a strike on the E-911 system's tower, said Mack Lawson, Colquitt County maintenance supervisor.

Damage was "scattered throughout the county -- 911, the jail and different offices," he said. "We had some equipment that got damaged from lightning. Eighty percent of costs were at the 911 site."

In 2016 Hurricane Hermine destroyed a 2014 Dodge Charger from the Colquitt County Sheriff's Office, at a cost of $20,237, Lawson said, and caused damage to the roof line at the Colquitt County Courthouse Annex that totaled $6,500.

___

(c)2018 The Moultrie Observer (Moultrie, Ga.)

Visit The Moultrie Observer (Moultrie, Ga.) at www.moultrieobserver.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.