US sees roughly 37 million lightning strikes a year, CDC estimates
Kenya Glasgow, 31, and her two-year-old daughter, named in media reports as Kennedi, were killed by a lightning strike in Margate, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale, on Sunday, local authorities said. The mother and child were found next to their car and were rushed to a local hospital, where they reportedly died shortly after arrival despite intense efforts to save them.
Prince Moody, a neighbor, told the local NBC News affiliate that he was inside his home when he heard a “huge bang” and his house shook. “My son said, ‘Dad, there’s a lady on the floor. She got hit,’” Moody told the television station.
Lightning strikes the United States about 37 million times each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency puts the odds of any individual being struck at less than one in a million, and says almost 90 percent of people who are struck survive the experience.