| Blue Valley and Leawood Star Saturday, June 25, 1994 Lightning damages Overland Park homes By Frank McCleary Staff Writer A strong storm that made its way through southern Johnson County on Tuesday left its mark in Overland Park. Lightning strikes were reported throughout the county, including four in southern Overland Park. One strike started a fire at a house in the 11200 block of 156th Terrace. The blaze, which started at 5:38 p.m., caused an estimated $250,000 in damage. No one was home at the time of the fire. Firefighters from Overland Park, Olathe and South Johnson County Fire and Rescue put out the blaze shortly before 7 p.m. |
One firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion. No other injuries were reported. Pat Mays, chief of services for the Overland Park Fire Department, said that lightning also struck another home in the same area. That strike, however, did not start a fire but blew a square-foot hole in the roof. "The odd thing about lightning is that it will sometimes cause serious damage or no damage at all," Mays said. Neither of the houses that were struck had lightning rods, Mays said. "We sure recommend people install lightning rods," he said. |
Although Mays said it was impossible to say that either lightning strike could have been prevented, some protection is better than nothing. "Rods provide very good protection vs. nothing at all," he said. Mays said his office received no other reports about serious storm damage. |
| Hikers Win Damages LOS ANGELES - A judge ordered the federal government to pay $700,000 to the family of a hiker who was killed by lightning in a metal-roofed hut atop Mount Whitney. U.S. district Judge William J. Rea, who ruled that the government had shown reckless disregard for hikers, also awarded $1 million to three other hikers injured in the 1990 thunderstorm. |
Thirteen hikers took refuge in the stone hut at the 14,494-foot summit. All suffered burns because the corrugated roof conducted the electrical charge. Matthew E. Nordbrock, 26, of Huntington Beach, was killed. |
WASHINGTON The giant blizzard that churned along the East Coast in March also produced near-record amounts of lightening, says a new study. |
A peak rate of 5,100 flashes per hour was recorded in the early morning March 13 as a line of thunderstorms moved into the west coast of Florida, Orville said in the study reported in Geophysical Research Letters. That was well ahead of the record 3,300 flashes reported in a 1986 study of summer storms. The most intense lightning was recorded just south of Tampa, Fla. with rates declining sharply as the storm moved north of the Carolinas. |
| Two are killed in Missouri storms Lightning starts fire in home. Boy is sucked into culvert. Water-weary residents in central and eastern Missouri hurried Friday to clean up damage left by violent weather as thunderstorms moved across the state again. |
Storms on Thursday and early Friday were blamed in the death of H.H. Fox, 87, who was killed early Friday when lightning struck his home near Wheaton in southwestern Missouri and started a fire. Fire Chief Bob Lombard said Fox was found dead in his bed and died of smoke inhalation. In northeastern Missouri, an 11-year-old Shelbina boy, Jason Cullifer, drowned Thursday afternoon when he was sucked into a culvert in a flooded drainage ditch where he was playing. A tornado destroyed two homes near High Point in central Missouri Thursday night, and another earlier in the day demolished 10 small planes and damaged six others at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield. Other storms throughout the day and night delivered a one-two punch of wind and rain, causing damage to buildings, uprooting trees, |
downing power lines and sending creeks over their banks. The Cuivre River in northeast Missouri was above flood stage at Troy and Old Monroe. In eastern Missouri, high winds tore the roof off school offices in Wright City. School had already been let out for the summer, so no students were there. A lightning strike at the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority house at the University of Missouri-Columbia caused more than $100,000 damage from fire and the sprinkler system. The three-story building was unoccupied at the time because of the summer break. A lightning strike in nearby Hallsville caused a power surge that burned out TVs, VCRs and a satellite dish in six homes. |