Lightning presents danger at start of football season

Football season has arrived and so has lightning season.

The old saying is that the odds of getting hit by lightning are one in a million.

That’s close.

According to the national weather service, the odds of getting hit by lightning are one in 1,190,000.

Despite the current dry spell in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, when storms develop, they develop fast.

Nationally, nearly 75 percent of all lightning casualties happen between May and September. The most vulnerable time is between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Those timetables coincide with the hours for many athletic events, especially football.

Katie Walsh Flanagan is an active member in the National Athletics Trainers’ Association. She chaired the organization’s lightning position statement writing group. She’s also the Director of Athletic Training Education and a health education professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.

She said coaches and players need to have an understanding of what the protocol is when lightning affects sporting events.

There were 13 reported delays in Texas in large (NCAA Division I or pro) football games because of lightning from 2010-2014.

There is no reporting system to track canceled/suspended games because of lightning. In a lot of instances, weather delays aren’t reported.

According to the NATA, from 2006 through 2014, soccer contributed most to the sports-related deaths (41 percent), followed by golf (28 percent), running (17 percent), baseball (10 percent), and football (3 percent).

The University Interscholastic League, the governing body for public high school sports in Texas, does not have any statistics on rescheduled games or lightning strikes, according to media coordinator Kate Hector.

However, the UIL also has recommendations for lightning safety with most of them the same or similar to the NATA policies.

On average in the Metroplex, one night of Friday high school football is affected each season by lightning. It happened Oct. 10, 2014, and five area games were halted and had to be finished on Saturday. In August 1995, a Forney High School player was struck in the helmet by lightning and he died four days later.

In the general population from 1990 and 2003, there were 52 fatalities in Texas attributed to lightning, which made Texas second in the country in reported deaths behind Florida, according to the National Lightning Safety Institute.

From 2009 to the present, 12 deaths have come from Texas, so that number has decreased in the past six years.

So far this year, one fatality has been reported in Texas due to lightning. A 56-year old male was struck in Port Lavaca.

“We have three sayings: if you see it, flee it; when thunder roars, go indoors; and if you hear it, clear it,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan gave more insight in how to deal with lightning:

What made the NATA decide to address the issue of lightning? “I had to do a research project 20 years ago as a professor. There was lightning in California, but not much and then it dawned on me, there was no lightning policy. So I worked with medical doctors and I’m starting to understand lightning better and now the NCAA and high schools work under our policy. We want to prevent death and do anything we can to make sports safer. We want to make people aware.

What are the signs that lightning is near? “When you get older, you start to know when the weather changes. You see clouds rolling in, a cold front coming. We always tell people to check the weather before they go out so they get an idea if a storm is coming in the afternoon. Typical signs would be the wind picking up, darker clouds, when you hear thunder. When that happens, you need to be prepared and identify a safe place to go to. Teams need to do that before practice starts so you can clear everyone to safety and leave in time before the storm is on you.

What is the general rule on thunder in the area? “If lightning stops a game, you need to stay in a safe place for 30 minutes. You have to wait 30 minutes until the last sound of thunder or lightning occurs. If there’s any again, it restarts. Lightning can strike 10 miles away so you need to inform people before that because sometimes it takes awhile to clear a whole stadium.”

What do you advise fans in the stands to do and is sitting in the car better than standing underneath the stadium?

“If you can get to your car quicker, sitting in the car is better, or a bus. When lightning hits the car, it goes off the metal and to the ground down to the tires. You might feel it if you’re on the phone and it’s plugged in the charger. At home, if you’re on the computer or land line, it could go down to the ground and into the lines and shock you. Also at home, don’t go into the shower, that’s no good. Another thing I want to get across is that some people think that phones and metal watches attract lightning, but that’s not true. Underneath the stadium is no good; you want to evacuate the field and stands and find a safe building and stand in it away from the windows.”

Where are most victims hit? “It varies. When lightning hits the ground, it radiates and ripples like a pond. If it gets to you, it could stop your heart with a volt or the brain or nerves, which are most affected. Top of the head is least likely, but it could strike since it’s up high. A direct hit to the head, again could happen, but it’s the least likely to do so.”

What injury occurs the most when a person is struck by lightning? “Data is low, but the people that survive don’t usually go back to their full-time jobs. They have a concussion and emotional problems for the rest of their lives.”

How important are the surroundings? “Most dangerous is wide-open fields and tall things like trees, light poles and bodies of water are also dangerous. Again, try to find a safe building that you can go into and make sure you stand away from windows. We tell people to check the weather before going out and to have a plan if a storm comes their way. You have to be responsible for yourself and coaches also have to make the best decision possible for all their players. We want everyone to be safe.”

What was the most surprising or interesting or notable item in your study of lightning? “Things were a little different 20 years ago, but even now it surprises me on how much coaches know. We try to tell them to coach, do what they do best and leave any medical questions to me, let me do what I’m good at. So some coaches will think they know more than me when it comes to the matter and the safety of their players. They think they have the knowledge of it all.”

What should a person do if someone beside them is struck by lightning? “If you’re right next to them, make sure you drag them to safety and if you know CPR, perform it. If not, get them to safety and regardless if you know or don’t know CPR, call 911. If they’re out there and you see someone get hit, make sure you get to safety. Don’t risk yourself or others by running out to where they are because you too could get hit. If that happens, again make sure you call 911.”

This story was originally published August 17, 2015 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Lightning presents danger at start of football season."