Rain began rolling in while a group of 50 kids was hiking in Sevier County, Utah, and the worst happened. Water pooled on the trail from the rain, and lightning struck the ground near where the youth group was strolling. The lightning strike sent an electrical shock through the entire group of kids.
The lightning shock hurt seven of the kids enough to require hospitalization. Ambulances brought five of them to a healthcare facility close by, however two children were so injured that they needed to be air evacuated to the nearby children’s medical facility. Thankfully, none of the kids’s injuries are life threatening, according to Fox 13 News Utah.
Sevier County Sheriff Nathan Curtis called it a “light rain” that began coming down on the youth group on Thursday afternoon when the lightning struck the trail. So what could the group have done in a different way? Is electrocution while treking a strong danger?
How to Stay Safe While Hiking in the Rain
The American Hiking Society provides these tips for hikers who experience or might experience rain while out on the trails:
- Prepare: Examine the weather report before you head outdoors. If a storm is approaching, descend from ridges, peaks, and raised areas. If you can hear thunder, you are in danger.
- Seek cover inside your home: If possible, look for shelter in a totally enclosed building or a hard-topped vehicle. Partly open structures such as path shelters, camping tents, and dugouts are not safe.
- Seek cover outdoors: If there is no ideal shelter nearby, seek defense in a valley or anxiety in the surface. Prevent separated trees or other tall items. Stay 100 feet or more far from metal things, consisting of trekking poles.
- Presume the position: If lightning strikes, crouch on the ground with your weight on the balls of the feet, your feet together, your head decreased and ears covered. Never lie flat on the ground.
Given the youth group’s experience, we also recommend keeping away from puddles on the trail in case lightning strikes the ground nearby.
Lightning stunned several kids who were treking in Utah, and 7 required hospitalization. Get the story here.