According to authorities, a 52-year-old woman and her two dogs were recently reported to be killed by lightning while she was on a walk one morning in the middle of this week in Southern California.

An AccuWeather report identified the woman as Antonia Mendoza Chavez and her two dogs, Chubby and Luna. Their case is the first lightning death in the United States in 2022, which happened during a barrage of lightning strikes in the Los Angeles area on the said day.

The lightning strike was reported close to the San Gabriel River in Pico Rivera, a city approximately 10 miles southeast of downtown LA, just before 9 am, LA County sheriff's Sgt. Jonathan Branham said.

In a media interview, Pico Rivera Sheriff's Department detective Morgan Arteaga said they don't see lightning death like the recently reported.

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Lightning
(Photo: Pexels)
Lightning can lead to a cardiac arrest or heart-stopping at the time of the injury, though some victims may have a delayed death a couple of days after if they are resuscitated but have experienced irreversible brain damage.


How Dangerous and Deadly is Lightning?

A National Weather Service report describes lightning as a "major cause of storm associated with deaths in the US.

Moreover, lightning can lead to a cardiac arrest or heart-stopping at the time of the injury, though some victims may seem to have a delayed death a couple of days after if they are resuscitated but have experienced irreversible brain damage.

Based on the NWS Storm Data, over the past three decades, from 1989 to 2018, the US has averaged about 43 reported lightning deaths each year.

Only roughly 10 percent of people hit by lightning are killed, leaving 90 percent with various degrees of disability. More recently, during the past decade, from 2009 to 2018, the US has averaged 27 lightning deaths.

Lightning occurs when the attraction between negative charges at the cloud's bottom and the positive charges on the ground is strong enough.  The lightning seen is, in fact, the return stroke when the positive charges are moving up to the cloud.

3 Ways Lightning Strikes People

It is not possible always to know exactly how a victim has been hit, although here are three of the ways it usually strikes its victims, according to a separate NWS report:

1. Lightning Hits a Victim Directly

One struck directly by a lightning turns a part of the main lightning discharge channel. Most frequently, direct strikes happen to people in open areas.

These strikes are not as typical as other ways humans are hit by lightning, although they are possibly the most fatal.

In most direct strikes, a part of the present moves along and just over the surface of the skin, known as flashover, and a part of the current is moving through the body, typically through the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

2. Side Splash Hits a Taller Object Close to the Victim

A side splash or side flash occurs when lightning hits a taller object close to the victim, and a part of the current jumps from a taller object to the victim.

In essence, the person acts as a "strong circuit" for some energy in the lightning discharge. Furthermore, side flashes generally occur when the victim is within one to two feet of the object that is hit.

3. Ground Current that Kills Not Just Humans but Farm Animals, Too

When lightning hits a tree or other object, much energy travels outward from the strike in and through the ground surface. Such an occurrence is called the "ground current."

Ground current kills not just humans but a lot of farm animals, as well. Usually, the lightning enters the body at the contact point nearest the lightning strike and travels through the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

A report about the woman and her dogs who got hit by lightning is shown on ABC7's YouTube video below:

 

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