Link

A Stillwater girl who wanted to enjoy a burst of warm summer rain Tuesday was struck by lightning and rushed to a hospital, where she died within hours.

Taylor Zimmerman, 14, had just changed into a swimsuit at her home at 1016 Sixth St. S. as thunderstorms rolled into the Twin Cities about 3 p.m.

While a friend hesitated on the porch, Zimmerman ran into the rain, urging her friend to join her, police said. As the rain fell and the wind picked up, Zimmerman took shelter under a large tree in her front yard.

Neighbors heard what happened next.

“All of a sudden — boom!” said Art Willemsen, who lives a half-block away.

Other neighbors said their houses shook as though they had been struck by a truck.

Police said lightning coursed through the tree and knocked Zimmerman down.

“The lightning turned red when it hit the tree, and you saw all this stuff flying,” said next-door neighbor Mary Ridgway, who was on her computer and had a view of the tree through a window.

However, a covered swing set blocked her view of the tree’s base, where Zimmerman had fallen.

Ridgway’s other next-door neighbor ran out of her house and saw the girl lying motionless beside the tree. Its trunk was scarred by the lightning, and the lawn was covered with splinters. She called 911.

Within minutes, Stillwater police Sgt. Chris Felsch and another officer rushed to the scene. The girl had no pulse, and for about a minute, the officers tried unsuccessfully to

revive her until paramedics arrived.

Felsch said Zimmerman’s mother, identified by neighbors as Kristal Ann Zimmerman, 40, was at the scene and left with her daughter in the ambulance.

Neighbors said the girl had two younger sisters and that the family had just moved into the house a few months ago.

Felsch said he received a report that paramedics had restarted Zimmerman’s heart on the way to the hospital. But officials with Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul released a statement

from the family about 8 p.m., saying the girl had died.

“The family of Taylor Zimmerman … wants to thank people for their support and share that their daughter was a wonderful girl who will be missed tremendously,” the statement said.

The National Weather Service said lightning is the most common deadly weather threat and that the outdoors is the most dangerous place to be during a lightning storm. The weather service advises that when you hear thunder or see lightning, you should quickly move indoors or take shelter in a hard-topped vehicle and remain there until the storm passes.

Particularly, the weather service said not to take shelter under an isolated tree or the tallest trees in the area.

The storm front, which brought heavy rain, lightning and hail to east-central Minnesota, largely dissipated in the metro area by 7 p.m.

Tad Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461.

DANGEROUS SKIES

Recent lightning strikes in the region include:

July 2005: Three men are struck in a Somerset, Wis., campground; they recover. Earlier that summer, a construction worker was hit during a thunderstorm while he was working on a new Wisconsin 64 bypass bridge near Somerset.

May 2002: A man is struck outside a Cub Foods supermarket in Blaine after reportedly opening an umbrella.

July 2001: A lightning strike injures 23 soldiers at the Camp Ripley military reservation.

August 2000: Two men are struck while returning to the campsite after Ozzfest in Somerset. One dies, the other is critically injured. Three other people also are struck at the same campground; they survive.

Link

A 14-year-old Stillwater girl died Tuesday afternoon after being hit by lightning while playing in the rain outside her home.

Taylor Zimmerman was not breathing and had no pulse when police, fire crews and paramedics were called to her house on the 1000 block of 6th Street S. about 3 p.m., Stillwater police Sgt. Chris Felsch said. About halfway to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, paramedics were able to restore her pulse, Felsch said.

However, at 8 p.m., Molly Snyder, a spokeswoman for Gillette Children’s Hospital, which has a partnership with Regions, said Taylor had died. She did not have an exact time of death, but said it was during the afternoon hours.

Taylor’s family asked for privacy but issued a statement thanking people for their support and sympathy and saying, “Taylor was a wonderful girl and we will miss her tremendously.”

When the storm blew in, the first of a wave to move across the metro area on Tuesday afternoon, Taylor told a 14-year-old friend who was over playing that they should “go out and run around in the rain,” Felsch said. They had changed into swimsuits and had just gone outside when lightning struck a tree in the yard, he said.

Taylor had been running under the tree, Felsch said, while the friend, was standing by the door. The lightning hit the tree and was transferred to Taylor, he said.

Neighbors knew little about Taylor and the family, saying they had moved into the neighborhood in the past few months.

The power of the lightning was obvious in the house’s front yard Tuesday night. A strip of the tree devoid of bark ran up and down the tree for a dozen feet or more. Shards of wood and leaves were scattered about the yard.

Neighbors home at the time of the strike saw flashes of light all around their houses and heard a big boom. Many feared their houses had been hit.

Wayne Henningsgaard was home doing the dishes in front of a window when he saw an instant, orange flash.

Link

Man rescued from Vadnais Heights swamp

A man is recovering after he found himself trapped up to his neck in a swamp near the border of White Bear Township and Vadnais Heights.

Officials say Scott Karas, of Hastings, became trapped in the swampy area near Interstate 35E and Country Road F around 12 p.m.

White Bear Lake Fire Chief Tim Vadnais says Karas had been contracted to survey the power line for Xcel Energy and was knee-deep in water when he slipped, sinking up to his neck in the quicksand-like mud.

“Luckily, he had a cell phone with him and was able to call his partner and tell him he was in trouble out there and his partner called us,” Vadnais said.

Rescue crews donned wet suits to slide into the water and were able to tie a rope around Karas, before using a hovercraft to pull him to safety.

“He seemed quite upset when rescue crews got to him, he was very cold. They took him to the hospital for possible hypothermia,” said Vadnais.

Karas was transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul to be treated. By Monday evening, he was released.

Link

Great Lakes rip currents subject of Duluth conference

Rip currents are blamed for about 100 deaths each year in the U.S., more than tornadoes or lightning. Often associated with the ocean, rip currents can and do occur on the Great Lakes, especially along sand beaches.By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune

When summer finally arrives and Lake Superior warms up enough to wade in, swimmers on Duluth’s Park Point beach should know about a danger lurking off shore.

Rip currents, the sometimes deadly pull of water away from beaches, will be the subject of a day-long conference in Duluth on June 4.

The event is set for the Lafayette Community Center on Park Point — just a few feet from the Lake Superior beach where rip currents can wreak havoc. It’s sponsored by Minnesota Sea Grant and the National Weather Service.

“It’s important for search-and-rescue people, some of whom have been stuck in these trying to rescue women, to know what’s out there and how to deal with it,” said Jesse Schomberg, extension educator for Minnesota Sea Grant. “But it’s also good if people who teach swimming lessons and those who spend a lot of time at the beach can come so they can pass this information on.”

Nationally, rip currents are blamed for about 100 deaths each year in the U.S., more than tornadoes or lightning. While they’re usually associated with the ocean, rip currents can and do occur on the Great Lakes, especially along sand beaches. Eighteen people died at Lake Michigan beaches in recent years from rip currents.

One man died and several people needed to be rescued from rip currents on Duluth’s Park Point beach on Aug. 13, 2003. Several reports of rescues occurred in July and August of 2004 on Park Point. The most recent publicized close calls occurred on Aug. 13, 2007. All were warm days with high off-lake winds and waves.

The conference keynote speaker is Guy Meadows, director of the University of Michigan Ocean Engineering Laboratory and a rip-current expert. Other regional experts will speak, and an expert on hypothermia from cold water is scheduled, as is a field trip to the beach.

Dean Packingham, National Weather Service meteorologist coordinating the conference, said Duluth police, fire, the Coast Guard and other groups are slated to attend to talk about coordinated efforts to react to rip currents before emergency calls are made for rescues.

Forecasting rips

The weather service uses a model to estimate when a rip current might occur. The Duluth office in August became the first on the Great Lakes to issue a daily “surf zone forecast” in the summer that includes risk factors for rip currents.

The highest-risk days are when easterly winds blow waves onto the sand on Park Point.

As water piles up on shore, it tries to find its way back into the lake through the path of least resistance. That movement can cause breaks in the sand and a strong off-shore pull of water through those narrow breaks like underwater rivers.

Swimmers and others caught in that pull can be overcome in their efforts to struggle free and swim or walk against the current. Experts warn against trying to fight the current and say to instead swim parallel with the shore until you get out of the narrow outward pull, then head back to shore.

The city erected large signs at popular beach entry points after the 2003 tragedy, but it’s believed many people simply don’t pay attention.

The weather service is trying to coordinate public information on rip currents and is hoping to coordinate a warning system to let the public know when they might occur.

“We’d like to be able to have some sort of interactive system to warn people of the danger and to have someone out there on the days when it might be an issue,” Packingham said. “A lot of people clearly aren’t aware of the danger that can be out there. We don’t want to scare people. But we want to make sure they get the information.”

Link

Man Dies Week After
Lightning Strike

Chad Giroux struck by lightning in
St. Cloud, Minn

Published : Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 8:18 AM CDT

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – One week after he was struck by lightning, a St. Cloud, Minn. man died of his injuries.

St. Cloud Hospital confirmed Chad Giroux, 42, died Tuesday. Giroux was struck by lightning May 6, and later found by neighbors, lying face-down in his backyard on the 900 block of Spruce Drive.

Neighbors believe Giroux was pulling dandelions when he was struck. A neighbor said says the only metal on Giroux was his cell phone and a key chain attached to his belt.

Giroux was taken to St. Cloud Hospital, where doctors put him in a coma to stop the swelling on his brain. 

Link

St. Cloud man may die after being struck by lightning

A St. Cloud man may not survive after police say he was likely hit by lightning. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Department says the 42-year-old man was unresponsive when deputies found him in the 900 block of Spruce Drive on Wednesday night. While the victim did not show any obvious signs of being struck by lightning, witnesses told officers they heard loud thunder around 4:45 p.m. Several residents in the area also said they had to reset their circuit breakers in their homes due to a lightning strike. The victim was transported to the St. Cloud Hospital. The man’s name has not been released.