A family of three was taken to the hospital Sunday afternoon after they said their boat was struck lightning at the Thomas Creek Preserve.

The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department said the family called in saying their boat had been hit by lightning.

JFRD met them at the Thomas Creek Boat Ramp on Ethel Road in northern Duval County.

The family described the lightning strike as a loud popping noise.

JFRD said they took the mother and father to Shands Jacksonville as a precaution; their son also was taken to Shands with life threatening injuries.

Lightning strikes increase in the summer months, and JFRD said lightning caused several structure fires in the last week and a half.

This is the start of the National Weather Service's Lightning Awareness Week, from June 20 through the 26th.

via Family Says Boat Was Struck by Lightning at Thomas Creek | Firstcoastnews.com | Local News.

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Rabid animals are a serious threat because they lack the part of the brain functioning that tells animals to relent, so they will literally attack until you are dead or until they are dead or subdued… This poor man.

By Kim Hackett

Call it an utter otter horror.

A 96-year-old man was ambushed and mauled by a rabid otter early Friday morning as he walked past brush near a lake in the Venice East neighborhood.

Morrell Denton was midway through his two-mile daily walk when the otter confronted him on the sidewalk. Denton said he thought it was someone’s pet.

But the otter “grabbed me by the foot and pulled on my leg and I went down,” said Denton in his living room, shortly after returning from the Venice Regional Medical Center’s emergency room about seven hours after the attack.

Covered in white bandages on both hands, and with nine stitches on his badly bruised forehead, Denton said he pulled the otter off with one hand before the animal started biting him on the other. The animal bit him to the bone on several fingers.

“I kept trying to get him off me,” Denton said. “It’s like nothing I’ve heard of.”

Two men saw the attack and raced to Denton’s aid, one striking at the otter with a shovel as the other called 911.

Christopher Janssen, 36, was bitten by the otter but the other rescuer, 53-year-old Raymond Duval was not injured.

An ambulance arrived minutes later, taking Denton and Duval to the hospital.

Both men were treated and released. Sarasota County’s health department issued a rabies alert Friday afternoon after the animal tested positive for the disease. Another otter tested positive for rabies in mid-February after attacking two horses in Sarasota County.

A biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said otters are not typically aggressive.

“They are skittish for the most part,” said biologist Jeff Gore.

Sheriff’s deputies shot the animal dead.

EARLIER REPORT

An otter attacked and wounded a 96-year-old man out for a stroll in Venice early today, and then turned on two men who came to his rescue, injuring another.

Morrell Denton, 96, and Christopher Janssen, 36, suffered unspecified injuries during the attack on Venice East Boulevard, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. The men were treated at nearby Venice Medical Center and released.

The otter was killed.

According to reports, Denton was walking along the 300 block of the roadway near an area of thick brush, sometime around 4:30 a.m. Friday, when the otter charged out and attacked him. The attack sent Denton sprawling to the ground.

Janssen and another man, Raymond Duval, 53, saw the attack and raced to Denton’s aid, striking at the otter with gardening tools as one of the pair called 911. Jensen was wounded during the scrap; Duval avoided injury.

The otter was killed.

Almost.

After a time, the animal roused again and began to head back into the brush. But after one attack on a human, there was concern the animal may be a danger to the public.

The otter was killed.

Definitely.

It was not immediately clear whether the rescuers or responding deputies put down the otter. Sarasota County animal service crews responded and took the otter to examine it.