This Makes Me Sad - 1 Died and 2 Injuries -

[artist]

NWUS52 KMFL 060011
LSRMFL

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL
810 PM EDT WED OCT 05 2005

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..

0530 PM LIGHTNING COCONUT CREEK 26.27N 80.19W
10/05/2005 BROWARD FL LAW ENFORCEMENT

*** 1 FATAL, 2 INJ *** COCONUT CREEK PD REPORTED THAT 3
PEOPLE WERE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING JUST BEFORE THEY COULD
SEEK SHELTER OFF THE FOOTBALL FIELD AT MONARCH HIGH
SCHOOL DURING A THUNDERSTORM.

this had to be from one of Tammy's bands today I believe.

[THead]

Sheesh, thats terrible. Not too far away from me, I think I was driving home from work through that mess this evening when they got struck.

[ericinmia]

On of my friends... his girlfriend goes there, and told me the story.

Short version...

There was a huge bolt that struck the field, and knocked tons of people down. It killed one kid that was rushed via helicopter to the ER. And 4 others are in critical. Three JV football players and two cheerleaders.

Its really sad, especially when we live in a time of lightning detection devices.
-Eric

[MWatkins]

This high school is the one my son will attend in 2 1/2 years...and is less than a mile from my home.

I can't imagine that this occured out of the blue...I hope they will conduct an investigation as to why those kids were out there at that time.

I tell this to people all the time...including my kids. Lightning scares me more than any hurricane or tornado.

MW

[artist]

how sad Eric! hope the others recover.

[MWatkins]

Here are the awful details...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... -headlines

This was not an easy article to read...

MW

[Brett Adair]

School officials shouldn't have had these kids on the field during this type of weather. Quite sickening.

[Brent]

*shakes head*

I don't get it... and yes, lightning has always scared me more than anything. We used to run a golf course and we were lucky people weren't killed during storms. People would stay out there until long after the close strikes had started...

[artist]

why didn't they have the lightning detectors??

[dolebot_Broward_NW]

From what I understand, the school called the football game as the storm started, and the kids were coming off the field at the time. Everyone here knows how storms in Florida are - bright and sunny one second - terrible deluge with frequent lightning the next. I was hit by the same cell that caused this, and it didn't exactly announce its presence. It was dry and sunny most of the day, and out of the blue (with maybe 2 minutes warning), the clouds rolled in and the skies opened up. A terrible tragedy for sure, but not exactly preventable. A lightning detector doesn't tell you "lightning will hit here in 2 minutes", only that there has already been a lightning hit in the general area.

I don't think school officials are to blame, the weather was bright and sunny all day, and even radar showed nothing until about 5 minutes before the cell moved through. This was a fast moving cell that caught a lot of people by surprise.

[O Town]

I agree. This happens all the time here in Florida. We are the lightning capital of the world. Alot of the time there is no evidence of storm, or sometimes it isn't even raining. I can not count the stories I have heard of people that where with the victims saying, the bolt came out of no where, it wasn't even raining. This is a very sad story. But I don't think the school is to blame as stated above.

[flair]

From what I understand, the school called the football game as the storm started, and the kids were coming off the field at the time. Everyone here knows how storms in Florida are - bright and sunny one second - terrible deluge with frequent lightning the next. I was hit by the same cell that caused this, and it didn't exactly announce its presence. It was dry and sunny most of the day, and out of the blue (with maybe 2 minutes warning), the clouds rolled in and the skies opened up. A terrible tragedy for sure, but not exactly preventable. A lightning detector doesn't tell you "lightning will hit here in 2 minutes", only that there has already been a lightning hit in the general area.

I don't think school officials are to blame, the weather was bright and sunny all day, and even radar showed nothing until about 5 minutes before the cell moved through. This was a fast moving cell that caught a lot of people by surprise.

I remember back to my military days in Orlando and what you described is exactly how I remembered it. We would be out training in good weather, and running as fast as we could indoors seconds later. And we had personnel monitoring radars and weather data who would sound the alarm to get in. It was wierd. It is extremely difficult to predict pop-up thunderstorms in Florida.

[jlauderdal]

This high school is the one my son will attend in 2 1/2 years...and is less than a mile from my home.

I can't imagine that this occured out of the blue...I hope they will conduct an investigation as to why those kids were out there at that time.

I tell this to people all the time...including my kids. Lightning scares me more than any hurricane or tornado.

MW

Lightning is a bad thing. Couple of years ago a couple from Colorado was vacationing on FLL beach and it was sunny and a storm about 10 miles put out a bolt of lightning killing the guy.

[CajunMama]

School officials shouldn't have had these kids on the field during this type of weather. Quite sickening.

This was included in the article about the incident that MWatkins posted a link to...

"The storm developed quickly over Broward County's northwest suburbs around 5:30 p.m. and dissipated 30 minutes later, said meteorologist Rob Handel with the National Weather Service in Miami-Dade County."

[arkess7]

how awful lightning is SOOO unpredictable.......thats why i hate it......i remember when i was in high school in the 10th grade....some kid was walking across our football field and got struck by lightning and was killed.......broad daylight..out of the blue....im born and raised here and lightning is something ive always feared..

[Canelaw99]

According to the local news, the high school did have lightning detector which is what makes it so scary

[beachbum_al]

It is sad no matter how you look at it. I am sure the coaches and school personnel are hurting and very upset about the events that have taken place. Living along the coast I have seen storms blow up so quick that one minute it is sunny and the next there is lightening bolts being shot to the ground. It is scary!