May 25, 2009
Lightning has killed one person in Kansas this year and injured at least two others.
Still, weather officials say, people don't take lightning
seriously enough.
Chance Hayes, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service
in Wichita, says it's difficult for people to perceive the threat
of lightning because they don't see how it can be a harm to them.
A study of lightning injuries and fatalities between 1959 and
1994 showed Kansas as ranking 25th for fatalities with 56 deaths.
However, the state was second in lightning damage reports with
1,182.
Hayes says many lightning victims are struck before or after the
peak of a storm, not realizing that the threat still lingers.
