A teenage boy has died after being struck by lightning during a fast-moving, pop-up thunderstorm that rolled over Orchard Beach late Thursday afternoon.
Carlos Ramos, 13, of the Bronx died at Jacobi Medical Center.
His friends of his family are devastated.
"If lightning struck one of my children, I don't know what I'll be doing. The thing is, he was a kid, he was a good kid. Really, really good one," family friend Jamila Banks said.
Six other people were hospitalized after the incident including 13-year-old, Stacy Saldivar.
Outside the hospital Friday, Saldivar, who was at the beach with her parents and two siblings, said she and her family saw the storm clouds, left the water and gathered their things and were running to escape a downpour of rain when lightning struck just in front of her.
"I passed out and then I was shaking and blood started coming out of my mouth," Saldivar said. "There was this man that was giving me compressions."
Saldivar said her dad screamed for help.
She said she was told the lightning struck the ground in front of her, but miraculously didn't leave a mark on her body.
"Like a little tingle that really hurt a lot," Saldivar said. "I feel lucky to be alive still."
Saldivar said she and her family were not at the beach with Ramos and that they don't know each other.
Lightning strikes are very rare, but what happened Thursday in the Bronx is a reminder they can happen.
The storm dumped heavy rain and brought thunder and lightning, forcing lifeguards to clear the beach.
But several people got caught in that storm.
In addition to Ramos and Saldivar, those struck were a 41-year-old man; a 33-year-old woman; a 14-year-old boy; a 12-year-old girl; and a 5-year-old boy.
All were taken to the hospital. All are expected to survive.
Beach goers described the scary scene.
"One lightning came down, and next thing you know the cloud came above us and lightning just started falling everywhere all around us," said Ralph Gonzalez.
"You can't there's no rationalizing it. It's just Mother Nature, if you want to call it that."
The thunderstorms came with the intense heat that gripped at the Tri-State area on Thursday, heat which is expected to continue Friday.
Lightning has injured 17 people in New York City since 2001, not including Thursday's incident.
In Aug 2018, two men were struck while playing soccer in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, we covered that. During the same storm, a man was struck while standing next to a car in Jamaica, Queens.
Three people were struck by lightning, also at Orchard Beach, back in August 2014.
In August 2002, a 25-year-old man was struck and killed by lightning on the roof of a building on Broome Street in Chinatown, likely the last known lightning death in the city.
Nationwide, lightning has killed six other people this year, including a 70-year-old man on a golf course in Westhampton, New Jersey.
Richard Davies Floodlist Fri, 13 Aug 2021 19:07 UTC
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the highest level 5 risk alerts in Hiroshima
Authorities have issued evacuation orders after days of heavy rainfall in south and western Japan. One person has died and 2 are missing after a mudslide destroyed 2 houses in Nagasaki prefecture.
A landslide struck in the city of Unzen in Nagasaki prefecture early on 13 August following heavy rainfall. Two houses collapsed, burying 4 residents. As of 13 August rescue workers had located the body of one of the victims, while another was found alive but seriously injured. Two people are still missing. Search and rescue teams, including members of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force, are working at the site. Areas of Unzen city are also flooded.
Record Rainfall and Evacuation Orders
Mount Unzen, near Unzen City, recorded 80.5 mm of rain in 1 hour on 13 August. A record 571.5 mm of rain fell in 24 hours and 743.0 mm in 48 hours to 13 August. The previous 24-hour high was 486 mm set in 2006, and the 48 hour was 510 mm, also set in 2006.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued heavy rain and mudslide warnings for several areas. Authorities have issued evacuation orders in 13 prefectures, affecting around 1.7 million households or 3.4 million people. The prefectures include Niigata, Toyama, Gifu, Shizuoka, Shimane, Hiroshima, Ehime, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita and Kagoshima.
Two farmers were killed when they were struck by lightning at Gomastapur upazila in Chapainawabganj on Thursday.
Gomostapur Police Station officer-in-charge Dilip Kumar Das told New Age that the deceased—Yasin, 18, son of Imran Ali of Borodadpur village, and Hridoy Oraw, 52, of Sherpur Kothadanga village—were struck by lightning while they went to work in their fields.
At least 17 people of a wedding procession were killed and 12 others injured in a lightning strike at Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj on August 4.
Twenty one goats were struck dead by lightning in a pen at Gopalapuram near T. Kallupatti on Wednesday evening.
Police said that C. Marichamy and K. Selvam had put up the pen for the goats on the farm of one Karuppasamy. When it started raining on Wednesday evening, lightning struck and all the 21 goats were electrocuted and died on the spot.
Dozens of women were killed and injured when lightning struck a women's wedding in Dhamar governorate, south of the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, transforming the wedding party in a funeral.
Local sources reported that lightning struck a house in the village of Al-Aqmar, Isolat Asbeel, in the district of Mayfa'a Ans, east of the city of Dhamar, during a women's wedding, killing and injuring dozens of women.
The sources added, according to the Yemeni agency "Khabar", that three women died, while another 30 women were injured, their injuries ranged from fractures and burns, as they were gathering. in home to attend the wedding party.
According to sources, another lightning struck the village of Maram in the same district, killing 3 women.
Most Yemeni governorates are experiencing heavy rains, accompanied by storms and thunderstorms. Some governorates have reported fatalities and injuries, due to thunderstorms or torrential torrents.
The Disaster Management Division (DMD) in India reported on 11 August that flooding has affected over 250,000 people in the eastern state of Bihar over the last few days. Seven rivers in the state, including the Ganges, are above the danger mark in 15 locations.
DMD reported 252,000 people affected across 125 villages in 5 districts, as of 10 August. The situation has worsened after further heavy rainfall over recent days, with more expected.
As of 11 August, rivers were above the danger mark in the districts of Vaishali, Katihar, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Bhagalpur, Buxar, Jehanabad, Khagaria and Gopalganj.
Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, carried out an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas on 11 August 2021 and instructed officials to further step up relief and rescue operation in 12 affected districts.
Fast food chains experiencing paper bag shortages with McDonalds leading the shortages. Questions across the industry are how will people be able to take away food from the drive through? Crops in mega-drought zones. Cannon ball sized hail Germany and Lightning strike through a car aftermath.
State power has its own limits defined by the fact that it is authority that reaches people from outside. State power cannot oversee and dictate the creative states of the soul and mind, the inner states of love, freedom and goodwill. The state cannot demand from its citizens faith, prayer, love, goodness and conviction. It cannot regulate scientific, religious and artistic creation. It should not intervene in moral, family and daily private life, and only when extremely necessary should it impinge on people's economic initiative and creativity.
- Ivan Ilyin
Recent Comments
They are cracking down on crypto because they know it is a threat to their central banking model.
Comment: Update: From the same source: