The number of people killed by Sunday’s storms in the Washington area has risen to four.

Carl Henn of Rockville, who was hit by lightning, died Tuesday night.

Police now say they believe it was also lightning that killed Warren Douglas Smith, 63, of Annapolis.

The Maryland Natural Resources Police say Smith was riding a jet ski a half mile south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. He was racing back to port as the storm blew in when lightning hit near him, electrocuting him, police believe.

Friends say Carl Henn, 48, was a decided environmentalist, who was working in a garden when the storm hit.

Henn ran for Rockville City Council at least three times, they say. He never won, but he was more involved in his community than most.

“It is absolutely an incredible loss. he was one of the very few positive influences in the city–an activist, but a positive activist,” said Rockville Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio.

Henn was at a picnic at King Farm when the fierce storm suddenly hit. He was celebrating the harvest from the three community gardens whose creation he spearheaded.

dale mccarthy was there:

“It was hail at the top of that hill, winds that were beyond belief,” said Dale McCarthy who was there. “It was a microburst kind of situation, it was a tornado touchdown basically and we thought everyone had run to their cars.”

But Henn had ridden his bike, and never made it to safety.

“We found Carl on the ground,” Dennis McCarthy said. “And he had no pulse and was not breathing, so Andre and I yelled to somebody else to call 911.”

But they kept getting busy signals. They finally drove Henn to the hospital in a neighbor’s car.

His friends said it was inexcusable that they couldn’t get through to 911.

Carl Henn was the ideal public citizen, friends say, admired for his civic work, and deeply mourned by his wife, Carol, and daughters, Jessica and Allison.

In addition to Henn and Smith, the other victims of the storm include 6-year-old Eric Lawson, who was killed when a tree fell on him at a Sterling recreation center.

And Michelle Humanick, 44, who died when a tree crashed into her minivan in Beltsville, pinning her and her mother.

ABC 7 News reported on Lawson’s and Humanick’s deaths Sunday night at wjla.com.

via Henn’s Death Raises Storm Victims to 4 | ABC 7 News.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) Maryland Natural Resources Police say lightning killed an Annapolis man caught on a personal watercraft during a thunderstorm near the Bay Bridge.

Officials say 63-year-old Warren Douglas Smith and another man were riding two personal watercraft Sunday evening a half-mile south of the bay Bridge when a storm blew in. Smith was pronounced dead at Anne Arundel Medical Center.

Natural Resources Police say a preliminary autopsy determined Smith died of electrocution. Investigators believe he was not hit directly by lightning but electrocuted by a nearby strike. Smith’s companion, 65-year-old Elmer Sappington, was 75 to 100 feet away on another watercraft but was not harmed.

A final autopsy is expected to be conducted in the next month.

via Maryland Storm Death Attributed to Lightning, | WJTV.com.

Additional information is being released in connection with a fatal bear attack which happened near Yellowstone Park on Wednesday morning.

State wildlife officials say that two people were injured and one person was killed in separate bear attacks that occurred at the Soda Butte Campground.

Park County Sheriff’s Department dispatch records show that a Park County Sheriff’s deputy and a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game warden were dispatched to the area at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and Investigators found a man dead at the campground about two hours later.

Two other people, a male and a female, were reportedly bitten and later treated at a hospital in Cody, Wyoming. The identities of the victims have not been released.

FWP officials, in cooperation with the Gallatin National Forest, the National Park Service and the Park County Sherriff’s Office spent much of the day at the site collecting forensic evidence of the attacks.

Officials from the agencies plan to hold a community meeting at the Cooke City Chamber of Commerce on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the incident.

“The camp sites are being combed for evidence,” said FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim “We’re not certain if it was one bear or more than one, and we haven’t determined if it was a grizzly or black bear. We’ve extracted DNA samples from evidence found on site. This will help us identify the bear or bears involved, once captured.”

Officials say that tents were ripped or damaged during the attacks but no food was found in the tent of the dead man or in the tents of the two injured victims. “Everyone appeared to have followed all food storage regulations,” Aasheim said.

The Soda Butte Campground, the nearby Chief Joseph and Colter campgrounds, also in the Gallatin National Forest, are closed.

“This is not typical bear behavior. It’s odd. It’s not normal,” Aasheim said.

FWP officials have set a number of traps in anticipation of the animal’s return on Wednesday night.

via KPAX – Missoula, Montana – News, Weather, Sports – - KPAX Home Missoula News, Missoula Weather, Missoula Sports, Montana News, Montana Weather, Montana Sports | Separate bear attacks blamed for fatality, injuries.

Authorities continue piecing together details about an overnight bear attack near Cooke City that killed one person and injured two others.

MT FWP officials say that it appears the victims were attacked separately and were not camped in the same location of the Soda Butte Campground.

The attacks are believed to have occurred sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m., and authorities believe that only one bear is responsible for the attacks.

Aasheim says the man who died had been dragged from his tent and was found at the western edge of the campground.

A woman suffered severe lacerations from bites on her arms, while another man was bitten on his calf. Both are being treated for their injures at a Cody, Wyoming hospital. Their injuries are not life threatening. Officials say the man was able to drive himself to Cody, while the woman was transported by ambulance.

Authorities have not yet released the names of the people involved.

Wildlife officials are investigating a deadly bear attack in the Cooke City area that left one man dead and two people injured.

The incident happened at the Soda Butte Campground late Tuesday night or into early Wednesday morning.

The name of the man who was killed has not yet been released.

Ron Aasheim of MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks says that another man was bitten on the leg and taken to a hospital in Cody, Wyoming, and a woman suffered injuries to her arms. Their conditions are not yet known.

FWP spokeswoman Andrea Jones has confirmed one attack and says there might have been multiple attacks; FWP officials and the Park County Sheriff’s Office are at the site of the attack and investigating what happened.

A Cooke City resident who chose to remain anonymous informed Montana’s News Station early Wednesday morning that there were two separate attacks, both causing severe injuries.  The source says there may have been a third attack.

We will have more information as it becomes available.

via KXLH | Helena, Montana – News, Weather, Sports | UPDATED: Bear attack kills one, injures two at Cooke City campground.

ST. JOE BEACH, Fla. — A Georgia man has died after being struck by lightning during his Florida vacation.

The Gulf County Sheriff’s Office says 40-year-old David Eugene Lee was hit Sunday while visiting a Panhandle beach with his wife and children.

They spotted gathering storm clouds and began to leave the beach when Lee’s wife heard thunder. She turned around to find her husband collapsed.

Lee was pronounced dead after being rushed to a Port St. Joe hospital.

via Florida vacationer killed by lightning strike – Florida AP – MiamiHerald.com.

A chance to work at the Winter Olympics and experience life as a farmhand on a southern Alberta ranch lured Dean Duchenne from South Africa.

The 22-year-old’s dreams of adventure in the Canadian west came to an abrupt end when he was struck and killed by a bolt of lightning during a storm Thursday.

Claresholm RCMP say Duchenne and two friends were putting up fencing at Sears Ranches Beaver Camp when a threatening storm began rolling in, cutting short their work northwest of Stavely around 5:30 p.m.

As they were heading back to their work truck, Duchenne was blasted by a direct hit of lightning.

“Poor lad. He travelled half way around the world to be here,” said Claresholm RCMP Cpl. Dalyn Orsten.

“I think it’s safe to say that’s not something that’s ever going to happen here again.”

A friend walking beside Duchenne was also injured and knocked unconscious briefly.

An uninjured co-worker performed CPR on Duchenne until help arrived.

Duchenne was taken to High River hospital and later transferred to Calgary’s Foothills.

He died the following morning.

Duchenne arrived in Canada last December with three friends to work at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.

With many more months left on their visas, the group found work at Sears Ranch in southern Alberta last March.

Despite having no ranching experience, Duchenne was a fast learner and a hard worker, his boss says.

“No experience but he was a good kid. They were all good kids,” said Jeff Sears, who put the young men to work with livestock and other agricultural chores.

Thursday’s freak occurrence is made even more upsetting because the crew were following safety procedures by stopping work under thunderstorm conditions.

“They did everything right, that’s what’s so frustrating,” said Sears.

“He was very, very outgoing, everybody who met him enjoyed him and liked him.”

Famiy and friends in South Africa are still grappling with the random and violent nature of Duchenne’s death.

Friend Chris Le Roux says Duchenne was excited for his Canadian adventure.

“I think he was looking for a break, to get away from everything and do something different,” said Le Roux, who says he regretted skipping the Canada trip to finish his studies.

“He brought the best out of them and people’s confidence soared after meeting him.

“He lived every second of every day to its fullest and I know he passed away with not one regret, except playing rugby for South Africa or the Sharks,” said Le Roux.

Arrangements to transport his body back to South Africa have been made.

Duchenne’s friends left for South Africa to attend the funeral but plan on returning to Canada, Le Roux said.

via Ranch hand killed by lightning strike was following his dream.

Isle of Palms, SC — A teenager is recovering from a shark attack in the waters off South Carolina.

Alex Stamm, 16, went to the Isle of Palms on vacation from Indiana. He said he was in waist-deep water when he felt something biting his leg.

“At first, I was kind of like bewildered, like what was going on. And then I saw the bite itself and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s definitely a shark bite,’” Stamm described.

He has more than 40 stitches on his right leg.

Stamm said he believes his past shark tales are catching up to him. Last year he was in a bicycle crash and told people he was bit by a shark to sound cooler.

The state Department of Natural Resources says on average, there are four to five shark bites a year in South Carolina.

Last week, a 10-year-old boy from Pennsylvania was bitten by what an expert calls a shark at Myrtle Beach. In North Carolina waters, two 13-year-old girls have had stitches after bites at Wrightsville Beach and Topsail Island.

To avoid any problems, experts say you should not wear flashy jewelry in the water, especially around your ankles, and it’s best to avoid areas where people are fishing.

via Teen Bitten By Shark Off SC Coastdigtriad.com | Triad, NC | National and World News Article.

After someone was bitten by what is believed to be a shark off Jacksonville’s coast for the second time in six weeks, lifeguards and surfers are blaming it on more people in the water, not more sharks.

Clayton Schulz, a 20-year-old pitcher for the University of North Florida Ospreys, was surfing about 4:30 p.m. Friday when something snatched and shook his left foot.

He didn’t see what bit him, but Schulz said he could feel teeth and believed it was a shark. He was in stable condition this week at Shands Jacksonville hospital, where he got about 300 stitches to close the wounds.

“He’s doing well,” his father, Peter Schulz, said on Monday. He said he expects his son will be released from the hospital this week. Doctors have said they expect a nearly full recovery.

The attack is at least the second bite injury reported in Jacksonville Beach since June 10, when a woman was bitten in waist-deep water a few feet from shore. She was treated for a minor wound, which was described as an outline of a small mouth with teeth.

Officials aren’t sure it was a shark that bit Schulz. Barracudas, bluefish and stingrays can also bite, said Capt. Thomas Wright of Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue. Before June 10, it had been about four years since a shark attack was reported in Jacksonville Beach.

“It’s kind of unusual to have two bites that close together,” Wright said.

Likely, it’s because of the number of people in the water, he said.

There have been no official reports of shark bites in the Ponte Vedra Beach area. The last reported shark bite occurred there last year in the Vilano Beach area, said Jeremy Robshaw, spokesman for St. Johns County Fire Rescue.

Swimmers and surfers must use their judgment about entering the water. Beaches lifeguards post purple warning flags for dangerous marine life. But that’s usually when scores of jellyfish arrive and dozens of stings are reported, not when sharks are swimming around.

Sharks are always out there, Wright said.

“That’s where the sharks live,” he said. “You’re in their house. If you’re concerned about that, you shouldn’t be out there.”

When Schulz was bitten, a waist-to-chest-high swell had brought out more surfers than usual, said Mitch Kaufmann, director of the North Florida district of the Eastern Surfing Association. When the surf is decent, few places between Jacksonville Beach and Atlantic Beach aren’t crowded, increasing the chance of a shark attack, he said.

“Shark attacks are still so rare that you really don’t need to worry about it,” Kaufmann said. “You do need to be aware of sharks and keep your eye out, but there are more people in the water than ever, it seems like.”

Sharks are so common that some bites aren’t even reported, said Tim Ellis, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident and member of the First Coast Wavemasters Society.

In June, Matt Searcy, another surfer in his 20s, was attacked in the Ponte Vedra Beach area and received 30 stitches, but that received no media attention, Ellis said.

He was dismayed by the severity of Schulz’s wound. “That’s a major deal when it requires 300 stitches,” Ellis said. “Anytime you have a shark attack, people who don’t regularly go in the ocean hear about it and it makes them fearful.”

Jim Dunlop, who owns Mystic Surfboards custom board manufacturing in Jacksonville Beach, said he’s had plenty of brushes with sharks along the First Coast over the decades.

He has seen shark fins in the water, one that measured 8 feet from the dorsal to the tail fin, meaning the shark could have been up to 12 feet long.

“I’ve seen big sharks. They’re here,” Dunlop said. “You look at the beach any weekend with all the people wading around, I’m surprised there’s not more [attacks.]”

Kaufmann predicted the latest attack won’t harm enthusiasm for surfing.

On Saturday, the day after Schulz’s attack, 150 youths showed up for the Super Grom Clinic on the south side of the fishing pier to learn how to surf.

via More people in ocean in Jacksonville Beach area means greater shark attack risk, lifeguards and surfers say | jacksonville.com.

CONCORD, Calif. (CBS/AP) A California man was arrested Thursday afternoon on suspicion of felony child endangerment and possession of mischievous animals after three of his pit bulls attacked and killed his step grandson.

The 2-year-old victim, Jacob Busbee, was at home Thursday morning with his grandmother, uncle, and 4-year-old brother, when he walked into the garage and was attacked by the family dogs, reports CBS affiliate KPIX. The boy died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Authorities say that the three dogs involved, as well as the family’s two other dogs, were all euthanized hours after the boy’s attack.

The Step-grandfather, Steven Hayashi, 52, was being held on $250,000 bail.

via Pit Bull Owner Arrested for Fatal Dog Attack on 2-Year-Old Step-Grandson – Crimesider – CBS News.

Charleston, S.C. – A Hamilton County teen is recovering after his summer vacation started with a shark attack.

Alex Stamm, 16, has 40 stitches and quite a survival story from his trip to Isle of Palms, South Carolina, near Charleston. He and his friend’s family had originally planned to vacation in Florida, but because of the Gulf oil spill, went to South Carolina instead.

On his first day at the beach, the Westfield junior was attacked by a shark.

“We were, like, tossing the football around. It didn’t bump into me. It just bit me straight on. I yelled,” Stamm said. “My first reaction, I tried to hit it with my right hand and I saw the tail swim away. I just told my friend Christian to get out of the water and we all ran out. At first, I was kind of like bewildered, like what was going on and I saw the bite itself and I said, ‘That’s definitely a shark bite’.”

Alex believes it was a sandbar shark, about four feet long, that left its mark on his leg. Right after the attack, his friend’s family jumped into action.

“My friend’s mom, she’s a nurse, and she saw all the blood. Blood was gushing out of my leg. She got me on my back so I didn’t go into shock,” he said.

As Alex was loaded into an ambulance, his mom, hundreds of miles away in Indiana, got a phone call.

“He did tell my best friend when they were in the ambulance, be gentle with my mother. She’s going to freak,” Susan Stamm said. “So they were just very nonchalant. ‘Susan, it was a beautiful day. We had a little glitch. Alex got bit by a shark. He’s going to need a few stitches.’ Forty stitches. That’s not a few. It was 40 stitches.”

Alex spent more than six hours at the hospital. He’s now on pain medications and antibiotics, but Susan says he’s in good spirits and plans to finish his vacation.

As a mom, though, Susan says being so far away from her son is tough.

“It was one millimeter away from his artery. That was hard. Last night, not being there, I couldn’t sleep last night just wondering how this was all going to pan out,” she said.

Now that she knows he’s going to be okay, Susan can find some humor in what happened. She says it seems Alex’s shark tales from the past are coming back to bite him now.

After a bike accident in Carmel last year, he told friends he got hurt wrestling a shark.

“Then this year he really did wrestle with a shark. He had to hit it to get it off his leg! I think he needs to be careful what he says,” Stamm said.

And maybe, she says, where he swims.

“They were supposed to go deep sea fishing, but I think this was close enough,” she said.

via Hamilton Co. teen bitten by shark in South Carolina – 13 WTHR.

JACKSONVILLE — A 20-year-old baseball player from the University of North Florida is recovering with a foot wound after being bitten by a shark.

Clayton Shulz of Stuart says the shark grabbed his foot before letting go.

Shulz needed 400 stitches on his foot Sunday night.

via Man gets 400 stitches after shark attack near Jacksonville | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY.

Lake Guntersville – Marshall County Coroner Marlon Killion confirms to WHNT News 19 that a 15-year-old girl died Sunday afternoon after being struck by lightning. The girl was swimming with family at the Honeycomb Campground off of Honeycomb Road.

The girl’s mother and sister were also hurt in the strike. Both were taken to Huntsville Hospital.

Killion says the 15-year-old was pronounced dead in the emergency room at Huntsville Hospital.

The Honeycomb Campground is located just off of highway 431 between Huntsville and Guntersville in Marshall County.

via deadly lightning strike marshall county – WHNT.

RAVENNA,Ohio – Joe Strong loved his family, he loved life, and he loved fishing.

Joe and Melissa Strong, along with a friend, were fishing on the Bassett Channel in Ontario Friday afternoon.  They were laughing, joking and catching fish.

But, the sunny, hot summer day changed in an instant.

“All of a sudden the sky was black and there was a lightning strike,” Melissa Strong said.

The couple headed for land, but the storm was too bad. Joe Strong steered the boat into a nearby patch of reeds for protection, Melissa Strong recalled.

Her 41-year-old husband was worried about his uncle who was in a nearby boat. Joe Strong got on the back of his boat to see if his uncle was OK, and he was.

At that precise moment, Joe Strong was hit by lightning, Melissa said.

She attempted to perform CPR on her husband while rescuers tried to reach the boat that was still miles from shore.

Joe and Melissa Strong had been married just 3 months.

Melissa, a newly wed only three days ago, is now a heartbroken widow, who lost her husband and best friend.

“I wake up every morning thinking it was a dream,” she said,” but it’s not a dream.”

via Ravenna family devestated by death.

MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. (WPRI) – A man made an unusual discovery in a Middleborough river last week.

He says he fished a two-foot long alligator from the Nemansket River Friday.

The man took the reptile to the Massachusetts State Police barracks in Middleborough.

It was held there until Massachusetts Environmental Police could come to pick it up.

Police are not sure where the alligator came from.

It is illegal to keep them as pets in Massachusetts.

via Alligator fished from Mass. river | WPRI.com.

STUART, Fla. – A Stuart man is recovering after being bitten by a shark in Jacksonville.

“The shark grabbed me and shook his head a little bit, and I think he kind of realized that he was biting the wrong thing, so he let go,” said Clayton Shulz.

The 20-year-old needed 400 stitches to repair the injury to his foot.

Shulz is a baseball player at the University of North Florida. He still has several more surgeries and months of rehab ahead of him.

via Stuart man survives shark attack in Jacksonville.

WALPOLE ISLAND, Ontario – Police are investigating the death of a Northeast Ohio man, who they suspect was killed by lightning.

The 41-year-old Ravenna resident was out on his boat with friends and family on the south end Bassett Channel Friday afternoon.

Walpole Island Police say when the storm moved in, people on the boat tried to seek shelter in some reeds.

According to witnesses on the boat, they heard a loud crack and saw a bright flash.

Immediately after lightning struck, they found the victim lying on the deck unresponsive.

Shortly after 2:00 p.m. Friday, a 911 call was made and the Coast Guard was able to locate the boat and get it to shore.

An autopsy is scheduled for later today. The name of the victim is not being released until family is notified.

via Northeast Ohio Man Killed by Lightning in Canada – WJW.

A 57-year-old woman died early Wednesday after rescuing her grandchild from a rip current off Old Orchard Beach in Maine, and officials warned there may be more of the treacherous currents in the area this year.

Anne Farley of Westbrook, Maine, jumped in the water at Saco Beach Tuesday afternoon when she saw one of her grandchildren struggling in the water, Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief John Glass said. Farley managed to push her grandchild to the point the child could swim back to shore, but was unable to make it back herself, the family told officials.

Witnesses at neighboring Old Orchard Beach spotted Farley face down in the water and alerted lifeguards, who pulled her out and performed CPR, Glass said. She was transported to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford, then transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she died Wednesday morning, he said.

Lifeguards rescued five other swimmers at the same time as Farley; they were unharmed. Glass said he was unsure if Farley, who was unconscious when lifeguards pulled her out of the water, had been caught underwater in a rip current or became too exhausted to continue swimming.

The area has experienced unusually strong rip currents this year, Glass said. Over Fourth of July weekend alone, lifeguards rescued about 50 people who were caught in the currents, he said. Farley was the first unsuccessful rescue this season, he said.

Unprecedented erosion up and down the New England coastline may be to blame for the unusual currents, said Stephen Dickson, a marine geologist for the Maine Geological Survey said. Strong storms wore away at beaches earlier this year in ways not seen for 20 years, he said.

“It’s a possibility,” Dickson said. “Lifeguards and swimmers are experiencing new rip currents in places they’ve never seen before. It will probably remain hazardous to swimming for the rest of the summer.”

via Maine woman dies rescuing grandchild; officials warn of rip currents – Local News Updates – MetroDesk – The Boston Globe.

Shocked Dan Muldowney was left in agony, bleeding and feeling dizzy for ten days after the attack.

The 4ft creature sank its fangs into his bare shin while he was bodyboarding on holiday with his family – leaving a double puncture wound.

It also bit him on the thigh but failed to penetrate his knee-length wetsuit.

Dan, 27, who believes he was the victim of a tropical species normally found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, said: “I felt something like a clump of seaweed against my leg, then a bang.

“When I looked in front of me I saw a snake with a black head shaped like a cobra – I clearly remember seeing its wide neck. No sooner had I seen it than it was gone.”

The attack at the popular resort of Newquay came just weeks after a fisherman saw a sea snake swimming at Whitsands in south-east Cornwall.

Dan, a surveyor, was enjoying a break with girlfriend Kenize Akhtar and their four children when he was bitten.

At the time he was in chest-deep surf trying out a new wetsuit he had just bought.

To begin with he thought he had hit his leg on a sharp rock and seen a huge eel.

But his wound began bleeding heavily and within ten minutes he was out of breath.

The following day blood started oozing from his mouth and he felt so unwell he was on the verge of collapse.

Then lumps like bubbles appeared on his leg and his fingertips began to tingle.

He consulted a GP, who was baffled by his symptoms, before a second doctor sent him to hospital where he was given allergy tablets.

By the time he returned home to Oldham, Gtr Manchester, he had headaches and twitching muscles.

Dan said: “My nerves were an absolute mess. I was irritable and unable to cope. Some days I just stayed in bed.”

Hospital tests failed to show anything conclusive but 12 days after his ordeal Dan started to recover.

After doing research he is sure he was attacked by a yellow-bellied sea snake. The creature’s venom, used to kill fish, is ten times more lethal than an Egyptian cobra’s.

Dan dismissed suggestions that he might have been bitten by an adder which had fallen off cliffs into the water.

He said: “There is a report of a Chinese man attacked by a sea snake who took 77 hours to die and his symptoms were the same as mine. I just want to warn other people.”

Experts said British coastal waters were too cold for sea snakes to occur naturally but that Dan might have been bitten by one which was DUMPED.

A Marine Conservation Society spokeswoman said: “If someone had kept a sea snake and let it go, potentially it could survive.”

via Tourist believes he was bitten by a tropical sea snake off the coast of Cornwall | The Sun |News.

A 12-year-old girl died Tuesday after falling into floodwaters near Flagstaff, Arizona, authorities said.

Shaelyn Wilson had gone to see runoff from a flash flood around 2 p.m., according to the Coconino Sheriff’s Department. A younger sister ran back to tell the father that Shaelyn had fallen into a wash.

The family searched the area near where the girl fell and several agencies also took part in the search, according to Kelli Most, administrative specialist with the sheriff’s department.

The girl was found about a third of a mile from where she went into the water, and her father performed CPR until paramedics arrived. She was pronounced dead at Flagstaff Medical Center.

A massive wildfire last month made the area susceptible to flooding, said Most. “There’s just no greenery there” to prevent runoff, she said. The blaze charred 15,000 acres.

Several small streams pushed over their banks, and flash floods were threatening homes, according to CNN affiliate KPHO.

via Arizona girl, 12, dies in flooding – CNN.com.

ANTHEM, AZ – A Valley man almost lost his life this week after a rattlesnake sunk its fangs into his right thumb Sunday evening.

Bill Johnson of Anthem was taking out the trash after his daughter’s birthday party when he heard a “hissing sound.”

“I thought I might have either a gas line or water line that had come loose,” Johnson said.

It was 10 p.m. when he said he reached down into the darkness and was struck.

Johnson didn’t see his attacker, but said he knew from the power of the “bee-like sting” that it was a snake.

He rushed inside and said within five minutes, he passed out.

His wife called 911. The first hospital he went to did not have enough anti-venin to treat his severe condition, so he was airlifted to Good Samaritan hospital in Phoenix.

Johnson is the 14th rattlesnake case this month alone to receive treatment there.

Toxicologist Michael Levine said most rattlesnake bites aren’t life threatening, but Johnson’s was.

He was put on life support for 24 hours.

“This gentleman was critically ill,” said Levine. “I think he very well would have died if he didn’t get therapy.”

Good Samaritan sees an average of 60-80 rattlesnake bites a year, with monsoon season being the busiest time for the deadly desert dwellers to attack, according to Levine.

Not only did Johnson spend his daughter’s “Sweet 16″ hooked to IVs, he also celebrated his 18th wedding anniversary in a hospital gown.

“It was kind of odd because it was like I’d do anything to upstage those events,” said Johnson.

He was discharged from the hospital on Friday.

via Anthem man almost dies from snake bite.

A feisty 2-year-old Olinda boy who was bitten on the shin by a baby rattlesnake on Sunday is expected to make a full recovery and should soon be released from the hospital.

“He’s already trying to crawl out of his crib,” said the boy’s foster sister, 18-year-old Hannah Blue.

Blue said her baby foster brother, who she declined to name because he’s a foster child, was transferred to U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento after being rushed by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Redding.

Alex Bostick, a captain with the Happy Valley Fire Protection District, has said the boy was in the front yard of his Willett Way home when his foster mother heard him yell “snake!”

She ran out side, saw the foot-long snake, killed it and called 911.

Bostick said the boy was fearless, saying ‘Bad snake! Mean snake!’ to the firefighters when they arrived.

“He’s just a fun kid,” Blue said.

Paramedics were especially concerned given the boy’s age and the small size of the snake, since they’d heard that young rattlesnakes are generally considered to be more venomous, Bostick said.

But that’s not the case, said Bob Hassel, the owner of Animal Nuisance Control of Cottonwood.

“If you’re going to get bit, get bitten by a little one,” Hassel said. “That’s an old wives’ tale.”

Hassel, who has to frequently handle rattlesnakes, said small snakes have smaller fangs and less venom than their adult counterparts, making them less likely to inject as much venom, which is no more potent than an adult snake’s.

Mercy Medical Center’s emergency room chief Dr. Rob Hamilton said 10 or 12 people are bitten by rattlesnakes in the north state each year.

He has never heard of anyone local dying from a bite. He said as many as 25 percent of the bites are harmless, since the snakes often don’t inject venom in what are known as “dry bites.”

Rattlesnake venom is a hemotoxin, meaning it attacks the muscles and bloodstream rather than the body’s nervous system.

The venom starts breaking down muscle tissue to help a snake not only incapacitate its prey but also to aid in the snake’s digestion.

“It’s more like a really nasty digestive juice,” he said.

Even so, unless the venom is injected directly into a major blood vessel which pumps directly to the heart and the brain, the venom only attacks the area around a bite.

Hamilton said most bites are easily treated with anti-venom, and there’s little risk of allergic reactions any more since most hospitals use synthetic versions of the drugs.

Anti-venom is expensive, however, running around $1,000 for a small vial, he said.

Hamilton said that if someone gets bitten by a rattlesnake they should not panic and should head to their nearest hospital.

He said not to use tourniquets, snake bite kits or attempt to suck the poison out, all of which are likely to do more harm than the actual snakebite.

Hamilton said studies have shown that the age group most likely to be bitten by a rattler are 18- to 25-year-old men, most of whom are bitten on the upper body as they try to drunkenly play with or pickup a snake.

via Olinda toddler bitten by rattlesnake expected to recover » Redding Record Searchlight.

A TOURIST told yesterday how he was bitten by a poisonous sea snake – in Cornwall, UK.

Shocked Dan Muldowney was left in agony, bleeding and feeling dizzy for ten days after the attack.

The 4ft creature sank its fangs into his bare shin while he was bodyboarding on holiday with his family – leaving a double puncture wound.

It also bit him on the thigh but failed to penetrate his knee-length wetsuit.

Dan, 27, who believes he was the victim of a tropical species normally found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, said: “I felt something like a clump of seaweed against my leg, then a bang.

“When I looked in front of me I saw a snake with a black head shaped like a cobra – I clearly remember seeing its wide neck. No sooner had I seen it than it was gone.”

The attack at the popular resort of Newquay came just weeks after a fisherman saw a sea snake swimming at Whitsands in south-east Cornwall.

Dan, a surveyor, was enjoying a break with girlfriend Kenize Akhtar and their four children when he was bitten.

via Man’s 10-day agony in poisonous sea snake attack | The Daily Telegraph.

Police were on the lookout for a mountain lion today in a residential neighborhood off Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.

Someone called police at 11:43 p.m. Wednesday and said to report a big cat weighing about 150 pounds near Temescal Canyon Boulevard and Sunset, Los Angeles police at the West L.A. Station said.

Two police officers thought they had the big cat cornered near Palisades Charter High School between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m., a video crew at the scene reported.

Animal control workers were requested, police Sgt. David Craig said. The locale is considered a residential area, Craig said.

As of 4 a.m., police remained assigned to the area as a precaution, police Lt. Martha Moran said.

A police officer at the scene told RMG News the mountain lion appeared to be 250 pounds. Mountain lions rarely grow that large.

Regardless of the cat’s size, the area of the sighting has been mountain lion habitat for thousands of years.

Other active wildlife in the area early today included coyotes and at least one skunk, according to RMG News.

via Mountain lion hunted in Pacific Palisades – Press-Telegram.

A trip to Yellowstone National Park turned into a nightmare for a group of tourists.

Cathy Hayes, a teacher from Utah, was catching a bison on video, joking with her husband, Jeff, and his brother, Donald, about getting a shot of Donald being gored by the animal — when Donald got too close – and it attacked.

The bison, clearly agitated, charged Donald and then Cathy, sending her into a panic. She ran for cover behind a tree, but the bison kept coming.

The car horn honking is clearly audible as Jeff tries to deter the bison. So is his yells of “Back,” and screams – with the video rolling all the while.

“I could hear him over me stomping and snorting,” Cathy said later, “and I just knew. I knew at that second that was it. You know, I thought, “This is going to be my last moment. It’s going to be in Yellowstone Park getting tromped by a buffalo.” ”

On The Early Show” Friday, Cathy told co-anchor Chris Wragge the bison “flipped me end-over-end like a rag doll, in the air.”

It turned out she didn’t suffer life-threatening injuries, but was pretty badly banged up. Her knee was the size of a football and she has big brusies ans scrapes on her leg. Donald broke his shoulder when he tripped and fell.

And the incident may not have been the bison’s fault.

A second look at Cathy’s video shows the animal was apparently provoked. It seems the bison was hit it in the back with a stick — a vivid reminder of the park’s policy to keep your distance from wildlife.

via Caught On Tape: Bison Attacks Tourists at Yellowstone – The Feed – CBS News.

CONCORD — A man whose pit bulls fatally mauled his 2-year-old stepgrandson expressed deep regret Friday about keeping the animals despite past violent behavior that included the killing of a family Chihuahua a year ago.

Steven Hayashi, 52, of Concord, spoke from jail about the death of Jacob Bisbee, who ambled into the family’s garage on Trailcreek Court on Thursday morning and was attacked by three of the family’s five pit bulls. Jacob died that morning at a hospital.

Hayashi was booked on suspicion of child endangerment and possession of a mischievous animal that causes a death and is being held on $120,000 bail. Prosecutors are expected to review the case early next week. All five of the dogs have been euthanized.

Hayashi’s wife, his 19-year-old son, and Jacob’s brother were at the house during the attack. Jacob’s father, Hayashi’s stepson, was at work.

Hayashi, who said he is not currently employed, was out with his 13-year-old son before coming home to the sight of police cars.

“I come home, my grandson is dead, and my dogs were responsible. I’m in jail, and my family might be persecuted or looked upon different than before,” he said, pausing and then adding, “I love children, especially my own grandkids.”

When he talked about Jacob, Hayashi’s eyes welled up and he started sobbing.

“He was a fun-loving boy. He liked playing with cars. That last (time) I saw him he came up to me and gave me a hug when I was cooking,” he said.

Hayashi said he and his wife looked after Jacob and his 4-year-old brother because the children’s father worked long days.

Although Hayashi said he made a tragic mistake keeping the animals around the two young boys, he doesn’t believe he should be jailed.

“I made a bad decision about keeping the dogs,” Hayashi said from an interview room at County Jail in Martinez. “I don’t take responsibility for Jacob’s death. However, I am responsible for not getting rid of those dogs when I should have.”

Hayashi said one or more of the dogs had killed his Chihuahua, Ruby, last year when he lived in Antioch.

“The reason I kept them is I didn’t have the heart to euthanize them” after Ruby’s death, he said.

A short time later, he relocated to Concord with his wife and two sons. About the same time, his stepson moved in, bringing along Jacob and his brother. The stepson is separated from the boys’ mother.

Until Thursday, Hayashi said he did not see anything wrong with having the animals — 1-year-old pups Max and C.J.; Kiwi and Jake, both 18 months old; and their mother, 3-year-old Sadie — living in the same house with small children.

He said all of the dogs except Kiwi, which he described as the aggressive one, were friendly around Jacob and his brother.

“Kiwi, that’s the one I didn’t trust,” Hayashi said, adding that he kept the children away from that dog.

Only Sadie, the dogs’ mother, was spayed. Hayashi said that he did not intend to own five pit bulls but that when he got Sadie from a pound in Lake County, neither he nor the staff knew she was pregnant.

Hayashi said he kept Sadie, Kiwi and Jake in the garage and let Max and C. J. roam free in the backyard. He let each dog free, one at a time, in the front yard, saying he was able to control them one-on-one without a leash.

He acknowledged neighbors’ claims Thursday that some of the dogs approached them aggressively, saying he did allow the animals to “explore” for a few minutes at a time when they were outside the house.

Hayashi said he is still trying to sort out exactly how Jacob got into the garage, which was usually locked with a deadbolt out of the boy’s reach.”Both me and my wife do not understand how he ended up in the garage,” Hayashi said. “This is the first time ever in the one year they stayed with us that Jacob has ever, ever gone inside the garage.”

The experience has left him with no affection for dogs of any kind. He said he once thought that owning the pit bulls, as long as he was careful, would not be a danger to his family. He has abandoned that thought.

“I used to think that way, too,” Hayashi said. “That’s what got me into this mess. Thinking they’re like regular dogs.

“I can understand a dog biting or nipping, but to maul somebody until he is dead, to tear out somebody’s face” shows pit bulls are particularly dangerous.

He said that is why he did not try to reclaim the animals after they were taken by animal services, effectively assuring that they would be euthanized.

via Stepgrandfather of mauled 2-year-old Concord boy: ‘I made a bad decision about keeping the dogs’ – San Jose Mercury News.

MEMPHIS, TN— Police still have not charged anyone connected to a deadly pit bull attack. William Parker, 71, died after two pit bulls attacked him while he was walking home from the store. His wife, Bessie, says her husband had a heart attack while being attacked by the dogs.

Memphis police have confirmed an officer was called to the apartment complex where the attack happened on July 18, 2010. The officer responded to a “dogs on the loose” call. Police say the viscous dogs had a person trapped inside a car. A spokesperson for the Memphis Police Department said animal control was never called to pick up the dogs because the owner was able to get the dogs back in the apartment.

The dogs belong to Bernard Humphrey. When police responded to the dog call, they discovered Humphrey was a sex offender who failed to register his new address. Humphrey was arrested for violating the sex offender registry law and the dogs were left at the apartment.

In addition to Parker, four others were injured. One was Gardenia Parker. She was attacked trying to save her father. “These little cuts and bruises is nothing. I can get over that part. I can’t get over losing my daddy,” said Parker. “I ain’t ever going to get my daddy back. I think justice needs to be done.”

Bessie Parker thinks Humphrey needs to be criminally charged. “The way I feel right now, they could give him the death penalty because he killed my husband,” said Parker, “I miss my husband. I can’t bring him back.”

The dogs are now at the animal shelter under quarantine.

The Parker’s had been together for more than fifty years. Bessie Parker now has to come up with the money needed to bury her husband. The couple had no insurance. Parker said, “I try to be strong for my daughter and my grand baby, this is all I got left now.”

via Wife Talks About Pit Bull Attack That Killed Her Husband|myEyewitnessNews.com, Memphis News, Entertainment, Videos, Business Search and Shopping.

A Southern California sport fisherman had an amazing catch on Sunday. Eric Downs of Northridge was sport fishing, about 30 miles off the coast of Malibu on Sunday when he spotted an 11-foot shark.

Downs went out to sea to track down and catch an often elusive, and always dangerous, prey. He found it just after 2 p.m.

Using tuna as bait, he soon drew the attention of a shortfin mako shark. As an avid sport fisherman, Downs wanted to claim his catch under the rules of the International Game Fishing Association. That meant he could only use the rod and reel to catch it. Using a 100-pound line, Downs battled the shark for more than an hour. It finally came close enough to be brought on board the boat.

The shark proved to be a formidable and hefty adversary. When the shark was finally hauled in to the Marina Del Rey harbor, it weighed in at 736 pounds. That’s far from a record, but Downs managed a very impressive catch as he prepares for an upcoming mako shark fishing tournament in Oxnard.

Attacks on humans by shortfin mako sharks are rare, but by all accounts a mako shark is a pretty serious fish. It can swim at speeds of up to 46 miles per hour and leap 30 feet in the air.

via California Angler Reels in 736-pound Mako Shark Off Malibu | Field & Stream.

Wilmington-area resident Steve Studer said he made an interesting find off Wrightsville Beach’s north end Thursday evening—a 5 foot shark gliding through Mason’s Inlet.

It was about 6:10 p.m. when Studer spotted the creature. He said he was flying up above the water in a powered paraglider. He captured an image of it as it moved parallel across the shorelines between Wrightsville Beach and Figure 8 Island.

“He was . . . in fairly shallow water and scampered off when I dropped down low on him,” Studer said in an email.

The Lumina News sent Studer’s photo to George Burgess, director of Florida’s Program for Shark Research and curator of the International Shark Attack File. Burgess said a photo wouldn’t be enough to identify the species. But the animal, he said, came from the family Carcharhinidae, which, in North Carolina, includes the blacktip, spinner, sandbar, blacknose, sharpnose, bull and tiger sharks.

Paul Barrington, director of husbandry and operations at the North Carolina Aquarium in Fort Fisher, said inlets are a major feeding ground for predatory animals, mainly because their dynamics tend to aggregate bait, thereby offering these creatures an aquatic smorgasbord of prey.

“High tide, low tide—it doesn’t seem to matter,” he said. “Where the food is, the apex predators are going to follow.”

Shark bites on humans are rare and are usually a case of mistaken identity, where the shark misinterprets human movement for that of its prey.

“They move quickly whenever they sense movement, but unfortunately sometimes what they’re grabbing turns out to be an arm or a leg,” Burgess said.

North Carolina has seen four documented shark bites so far this year, more than double its annual average. None of those were fatal.

The latest encounter, between 13-year-old Kendall Parker and an unknown species, occurred just south of Mason’s Inlet, where Studer reportedly captured his image.

Earlier this week, Burgess suggested northern predatory grounds had opened early due to above-average water temperatures, causing an unseasonable abundance of sharks along the North Carolina seaboard, he said.

via Lumina News – Wrightsville’s Newspaper Since May 2002.

Two men camping in the woods at the west end of Sproat Lake near Port Alberni have suffered extensive wounds after being attacked by a bear, Port Alberni RCMP said Wednesday.

A 57-year-old man sleeping in a lean-to shelter was attacked first, and his 47-year-old friend sleeping in a tent nearby was able to fight off the bear, police said in a press release.

The older man sustained injury to his skull and has been transported to Nanaimo for surgery, while both men received extensive claw mark wounds in the attack, police said. It is unknown what, if anything, provoked the attack, police said.

“Police and conservation want to remind people visiting the back country to be extra vigilant in protecting themselves and their camp from wildlife encounters,” said Sgt. Kevin Murray of the Port Alberni RCMP in the release.

via Bear attacks men on Vancouver Island.

WILMINGTON—The Sand Tiger shark may be the culprit behind a recent shark bite in Wrightsville Beach.

Experts at the Fort Fisher Aquarium said attacks by sand tiger sharks are rare. Paul Barrington said it’s very similar to a dog barking and biting an intruder for being in their environment. Barrington said there are about 75 unprovoked shark encounters around the world every year, 5 to 10 of those are confirmed deaths. The cause is usually a case of mistaken identity.

Barington said the windy weather conditions and cloudy water could have played a role in the encounter.

“These are hit and run attacks, this is not an animal that typically seeks humans for food,” said Barrington.

To help keep safe while swimming Barrington offers this advice:

• Swim with a group of people.

• Don’t venture far away from shore where you can’t get immediate assistance.

• Avoid swimming at dusk and dawn. Those are prime feeding times.

• Avoid areas where birds are feeding on fish.

Experts said there are about 10 different species of large coastal sharks that inhabit the North Carolina Coast. This Includes the Sand Tiger Shark, Sand Bar Shark, and Lemon Shark among others.

via Despite recent attack, experts call rarity on sand tiger shark – News14.com.

The last time Kendall Parker visited Wrightsville Beach she had a typical vacation, filled with sandcastles and swimming.

This weekend was different, filled with a shark bite and trip to the hospital.

Kendall, 13, of Davidson, was bitten by a shark Saturday while swimming near the Shell Island Resort.

“I was in the water … and I felt pressure on my arm,” Kendall said, now recovering at home. “It didn’t even hurt because it happened so fast.”

Kendall said she didn’t see the shark, which is good because if she had she would have “freaked out and screamed.”

But she did see a lot of blood in the water, and the bite was serious enough to require 40 stitches on her right hand and arm and possible tendon surgery.

Kendall said her arm and hand occasionally throb, and she can’t move her index finger because of a severed tendon. She’ll have to take a break from her summer softball team, but she hasn’t let the bite slow her down.

When asked if her family served her breakfast in bed, Kendall laughed: “Oh no, I’ve got to get up.” Kendall did get a free dessert “for being a trooper” when her family went to dinner after she was released from the hospital.

“The manager couldn’t believe it,” she said of the bite.

Neither could Kendall’s best friend, Karly Adams, 12, of Huntersville, whom she called immediately when she got back to her hotel.

“At first … I thought she was playing a joke on me,” Karly said.

But shark attacks off the Carolina coast are no joke. Only two days after Kendall’s incident, a 10-year-old boy was bitten on the leg in Myrtle Beach on Monday.

This year there have been seven confirmed shark attacks off the Carolinas, said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, which tracks attacks worldwide.

The yearly S.C. average number of shark attacks between 2003 and 2009 was three, he said. North Carolina had an average of 1.5 during the same period.

Summer is the prime time for shark attacks because warmer temperatures attract both more people and more sharks, which migrate seasonally, said Paul Barrington with the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

This summer’s heat wave might have led to a greater number of sharks earlier than usual, said Dr. Frank Schwartz, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences.

“This year we’re ahead of schedule,” he said. “This (heat) usually occurs around August and September.”

Even in warm waters, the chances of a shark attack are slim, Burgess said.

“There are more people injured by stepping on seashells or getting severe sunburn,” he said. “That said, one should always remember when one enters the sea that it is a wilderness experience.”

Burgess advised beachgoers to avoid swimming between dusk and dawn and to stay in groups.

via Davidson girl recovering from shark’s bite – CharlotteObserver.com.

A 10-year-old boy was reportedly bitten by a shark in Myrtle Beach on Monday morning.

Shark bite has not been confirmed as the source of the injury to the boy’s leg, but witnesses told TheSunNews.com that they saw a shark fin in the water just prior to the boy’s injury.

The report from Myrtle Beach comes just two days after a 13-year-old girl was bitten by a shark at Wrightsville Beach on Saturday. Her wounds required 40 stitches.

A Greensboro girl needed 60 stitches after she was bitten by a shark at Topsail Beach in June, and a Georgia girl was bitten by a shark in June in the water off Fripp Island, S.C.

The International Shark Attack File lists 35 attacks in North Carolina from 1935-2009. Eight of those attacks were in New Hanover County and eight were in Onslow County. There were none listed for Pender County, although that will change when the 2010 statistics are added. The site lists 64 attacks in South Carolina from 1837-2009. Eighteen of those attacks were in Horry County.

via Boy, 10, reportedly bitten by shark at Myrtle Beach – Captain StarNews – Wilmington Star News – Wilmington, NC – Archive.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — A 55-year-old surfer was bitten by a shark over the weekend off New Smyrna Beach.The man said a school of bait fish swam into the area where he was surfing on Saturday and a shark bit his lower leg.The man was not seriously injured.

via Surfer, 55, Injured In Shark Attack – Orlando News Story – WKMG Orlando.

HOUSTON — A local news agency reported on Thursday that a second person has been bitten by a shark on 8 Mile beach in Galveston. The victim was identified as Charlie Gauzer, an avid fisherman for over 50 years. Gauzer said the shark’s head was about two to three feet wide and it felt like he was hit by a tree trunk. He then started to feel pain and found he had blood coming out of his leg. Gauzer added that the shark clamped its teeth into his leg as he kicked and paddled to try to escape. The bite gashed all the way to Gauzer’s bone and cut his Achilles tendon. The incident was the second time in less than a month that someone was attacked by a shark at 8 Mile beach. Last June 27, a surfer was bitten and suffered a gash that required 60 stitches.

via Fisherman Bitten By Shark in Texas – Animal attack – ubAlert.

MONTREAL – A 46-year-old man was in critical condition Sunday morning after he and his wife, 49, were struck by lightning Saturday evening in the city’s east end.

The man suffered severe internal burns and was in cardiac arrest when ambulance technicians took him away about 7:40 p.m. from the corner of Frontenac St. and Notre Dame St., Urgences Santé spokesperson Benoit Garneau said.

“He had some serious internal injuries and was hemorrhaging,” Garneau said. “His wife was also seriously burned, but she regained consciousness as she was being transported to the hospital.”

The man was listed in critical condition in a hospital’s intensive-care unit on Sunday morning, Garneau said.

The couple were under the tree during a thunderstorm and had gone there to watch the fireworks festival later Saturday night. They had folding chairs and an umbrella, which may have attracted the lightning, Garneau said.

“There’s nothing worse for attracting lightning than being under a tree holding something made of metal and with your feet on the ground,” Garneau said. “The lightning struck the tree and hit them directly.”

Elsewhere in Montreal, the strong rains Saturday afternoon and evening caused flooding in the Acadie Circle area resulting in temporary closures of parts of Highways 15 and 40 between roughly 4:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., according to Transport Quebec. The agency has warned motorists to avoid the Decarie Expressway and the Acadie Circle during heavy rainstorms as it is prone to flooding. There were no motorists left stranded in the flooded areas, a Transport Quebec spokesperson said Sunday.

The rains and wind also toppled trees in St. Eustache and Sherbrooke, and hail and a waterspout cloud were seen in Mascouche. A man’s awning was knocked over in Kirkland, causing several people who were under it to run for cover.

There was some flooding reported on Le Carrefour Blvd. near Cure Labelle Blvd. in Laval.

Environment Canada was checking to see if a mini-tornado may have occurred in St. Lazare.

Environment Canada is predicting a warm day on Sunday, with a high of 28C, and then a return to seasonal temperatures for the early part of the week.

According to Environment Canada, lightning is an electrical discharge caused by a build-up of static electricity between thunderclouds, or between thunderclouds and the ground. It can deliver as much as 100 million volts of electricity and strike a target up to 16 kilometres away, making it extremely dangerous.

Thunder is the noise created when air suddenly expands from the heat of a lightning discharge. If you count the seconds between a flash of lightning and a thunder clap, you can tell approximately how close the lightning is to you: each second representing about 300 metres.

Some lightning safety tips:

1) If you can hear thunder, you are within distance of a lightning strike. Take shelter immediately, preferably in a house or all-metal automobile (not convertible top) or in a low-lying area.

2) When there is lightning nearby, head indoors immediately. Stay away from electrical appliances and equipment, doors, windows, fireplaces and anything else that will conduct electricity, such as sinks, tubs and showers. Avoid using a telephone that is connected to a landline.

3) If you are in your car, do not park under tall objects that could topple, and do not get out if there are downed power lines nearby.

4) There is no safe place outdoors during thunderstorms. As such, in situations where you find yourself outside during a thunderstorm, it is best to quickly get to a safe indoor venue as soon as possible, or a car if an indoor area is not available.

5) If you find yourself stuck outside with no other safe option, keep away from trees and other tall hazards, and drop to your knees, bent forward so your head is lower than your back (but not touching the ground) and put your hands on your thighs. Do not lie flat on the ground. Remember that even if you do this, being exposed outside during a thunderstorm with lightning can lead to serious danger, injury and even death.

6) If caught on the water in a small boat with no cabin, quickly get to shore. Boats with cabins offer a safer but still not ideal environment.

7) People who have been struck by lightning do not carry an electrical charge and can be safely handled. Call for medical assistance immediately and, if breathing has stopped, administer mouth-to-mouth or cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

via Montreal couple struck, burned by lightning.

Depending on where you are in the Rockies this year, the annual summer bear season could mean black-bear sightings in your front yard or a near-death experience while looking through the jaws of a hungry bear.

Already, the list of bear attacks across the Rockies this summer is beginning to mount.

On Saturday morning, a bear attacked a homeless man sleeping in Durango near the Animas River. The man survived, but the bear didn’t after Colorado Division of Wildlife officials turned their guns on it after the attack. A necropsy of the bear’s carcass was completed at CSU.

Last Thursday, a bear broke into a home in Bailey, southwest of Denver, biting a man.

Other bears have been sighted plundering porches and backyards in Livermore and Rist Canyon.

In the past month, bears have turned outright hostile in New Mexico, where they’ve developed an affinity for tents and a taste for the people sleeping in them.

“They’re coming down and acting kind of aggressive right now,” said Dan Williams, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

New Mexico wildlife officials killed a bear at the end of June after it jumped on a tent and took a swipe at the man sleeping in it at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, a 137,000-acre camping and backpacking ranch just south of the Colorado state line west of Raton.

There were two more incidents there: The same day, another bear was found with a goat in its mouth, and a Philmont staffer killed it. On Wednesday, a bear bit a 14-year-old Boy Scout through his tent, leaving a deep gash in his head.

“It kind of peeled back the scalp there,” Williams said.

Both campers who were attacked were carefully following strict bear-safety protocols in place at Philmont, he said.

Those incidents followed another in June when a bear swatted a man tent-camping in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque.

But all the ursine nastiness in some parts of the West doesn’t mean there’s anything unusual going on this year, particularly in Colorado and Wyoming.

Bear activity is quite normal throughout Colorado, DOW spokesman Tyler Baskfield said.

The bears’ habitat is normal and healthy, he said, and there is no sign of increased bear sightings or attacks in any localized area, he said.

“We haven’t noticed anything that is different than we’ve seen in years when there’s decent, natural food,” said Ken Wilson, a professor of wildlife and conservation biology at Colorado State University.

“A bear has been into some trash cans in Rist Canyon,” he said. “One bear can decide it’s going to get into something, (but) it’s not all of them.”

Few bears have been seen at all in southern Wyoming, where wildlife officials consider black-bear habitat and natural food supply excellent, said Al Langston, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish.

In New Mexico, dry weather hurt the bears’ food supply and dried out the forbs and grass that usually get black bears through the spring.

The lack of food there is so dire that this year’s number of bear attacks hasn’t been seen in New Mexico for almost a decade, Williams said.

There are plenty of things homeowners and backcountry adventurers can do to keep bears away.

For people camping in the mountains, store food in bear-resistant containers away from your sleeping area, Wilson said.

The best way to keep plundering bears away from homes is to keep birdseed, trash and other potential food sources inside where bears can’t have easy access to them, Baskfield said.

“There’s no reason to feed birds this time of year” because natural bird food is plentiful, he said.

And, he warned city dwellers, just because you might live in Fort Collins doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your home bear resistant.

“We get bears who wander into Fort Collins on a regular basis,” he said.

via List of bear attacks this summer grows | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan.

(NECN: Kenneth Craig, Rindge, N.H.) – A mother and her nine-year-old son were struck by lightning Friday night while heading to their lakeside vacation home.

A bolt of lightning ripped through their campsite, creating a terrifying experience.

“It was scary,” Bonnie Mann said. “I couldn’t move my legs. I was paralyzed for a period of time.”

The two are lucky to be alive after being struck at the Rindge, N.H. Vacation home. It was an almost one-in-a-million chance that they were struck Friday night.

“It was a huge vibrating feeling,” Bonnie Mann said. “[It lasted] long enough to wonder when it was going to stop.”

She said they held each other as they waited for help. Simon asked his mother if they would make it out alive.

The mother and son, who were there with family vacationing from Switzerland, were taken to area hospitals and quickly released. They said all they have to show for their adventure are a few superficial burns and blisters. They are thankful for the way it ended — without serious damage.

The family has about a week left before they had back home. They said they will not be taking any chances with summer storms again.

via Woman struck by lightning, momentarily paralyzed.

SAN DIEGO — While people become sicker and sicker from rattlesnake bites, researchers at the University of California, San Diego are working to combat that trend by developing more potent anti-venom.

Several weeks ago, a bite killed a 5-year-old Schnauzer in Bonita, but it’s not just dogs that have been bit that have raised the most alarms.

“It’s a definite concern,” said Dr. Richard Clark, the director of toxicology at UCSD.

Clark said although a few dozen human bites are reported locally every year, a puzzling trend has emerged.

“We continue to see very bad snake bites, probably worse than last several years previously,” he said.

More severe reactions, including breathing problems, low blood pressure, and uncontrollable bleeding have led many to wonder if rattlesnake venom is becoming more potent.

One theory proposes rodents, the rattlesnake’s food source, are developing resistance to venom, causing snakes to develop more potent venom by natural selection.

Another theory suggests the rattlesnake has evolved to have more potent venom because of a shrinking habitat and a tougher time finding food over the years.

None of these theories have been proven.

Whatever the cause, UCSD is researching a possible response in the form of more potent anti-venom. A clinical trial began a year and a half ago.

Unlike the conventional anti-venom, the molecules of the new anti-venom are bigger, which means a bigger potential impact on severe and recurring symptoms. The bigger molecules remain in the body long, making the anti-venom more effective.

Clinical trials should be complete by the end of the year. If proven effective, the anti-venom would be a much-needed weapon against venom that may be turning more potent.

Dr. Clark said that every year, there are several rattlesnake-related deaths in California. He said he fears the number could climb, because people with more severe reactions are more at risk for fatal complications.

via Local Rattlesnake Bites Becoming More Severe – San Diego News Story – KGTV San Diego.

FORT MYERS: The teen who lost his hand in an alligator attack spoke publicly Friday for the first time since Sunday night’s accident.

Tim Delano spoke about the attack that left him without his left hand, even joking a bit and being thankful that he is right-handed.

Delano was swimming in a canal in Golden Gate Estates when an 11-foot alligator pulled him underwater.

Delano was able to free himself from the gator’s “death roll” by punching the reptile with his right hand.

“I shortly realized that this is for real, I opened my eyes, I saw the gator’s face doing the death roll. I could see the bottom of his mouth,” he said. “I just took my hand and screamed. You could see my muscle, bone moving around.”

He says immediate shock took over. Delano and his friends jumped in his truck. They called 9-1-1, and then he made one more important phone call.

“I said, ‘Hey mom, my hand got taken off by an alligator. I’m on my way to the hospital. I love you, goodbye, hope to see you again,’” Delano said.

He was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, where attempts to reattach his severed hand were unsuccessful because doctors feared his hand was infected.

Delano says the constant reminders – even from his parents – make it hard for him to cope with what happened.

“They were sitting across from me and all I could look at was their left hand and just started breaking down,” he said.

But Delano says he still has something to look forward to. His doctor is working to get him a prosthetic hand.

“That’s what is giving me hope and I can move on with my life a little bit, but just one step at a time,” he said.

Saturday, the Palmetto Ridge Marching Pride – the band Delano was in – is holding a fundraiser car wash for him.

It’s from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at “E’s Country Store” at Immokalee and Oil Well Roads in Golden Gate Estates.

via Gator attack victim speaks publicly for first time – ABC-7.com WZVN News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida.

A Texas fisherman is recovering Friday from injuries he sustained after he was bitten by a shark in the Texas coastal waters off Galveston, KPRC-TV reported.

Charlie Gauzer was fishing off Galveston Island when he said the shark approached his boat and bit down on his leg.

“I started to feel pain…I looked down and I had blood coming out of my leg,” Gauzer said. The shark bit deeper into Gauzer’s leg as the fisherman tried to escape.

“It was gashed pretty good, down to the bone,” Gauzer said. The shark missed the artery but did severe Gauzer’s Achilles tendon.

The attack on Gauzer is the second shark attack near Galveston’s 8 Mile Road Beach in less than a month.

A surfer, injured by a shark bite at the end of June, required 60 stitches to repair the gash made by the shark.

“The problem with Galveston is, especially right now, is that the water is all stirred up and brown and it’s hard to see,” Gauzer said.

Galveston is located more than 50 miles southeast of Houston.

via Texas fisherman bitten by shark off Galveston coast – NYPOST.com.