Risk Management Topic
Lightning Safety
According to the National Lightning Safety Institute, lightning kills more people in the U.S. each year than hurricanes and tornadoes combined, with 756 people killed between 1990 and 2003. Four to six times more survived, but the vast majority of those survivors commonly suffer serious long term effects.
The typical incident occurred on a weekend afternoon, just when many YMCA activities take place. Since the activities are beneficial and avoiding the locations and times is impractical, it would be wise to determine what can be done to minimize the exposure to harm that program participants face.
General Protocols
1: Know your area's propensity for stormsOutdoor activitiesa: Florida was worst with 126 deaths during the period studied...Texas was second with 52
b: Colorado, Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania all had 25 or more
c: Alabama, Illinois, Georgia, and Louisiana rounded out the top 10
d: Only Alaska and Hawaii had none
2: Know your program's potential exposurea: 45% of the incidents for which a location or activity were reported occurred in an open field or recreation area (golf excluded)
3: Know your adversary
b: 23% of the incidents for which a location or activity were reported occurred under trees (golf excluded)
c: 13% of the incidents for which a location or activity were reported involved swimming, boating, or fishing
d: 8% of the incidents for which a location or activity were reported involved golf (in the open and under trees combined)a: The average thunderstorm is six to ten miles wide and moves at 25 mph
4: Develop a severe weather policy
b: The average lightning strike is five to six miles long, but can be twice that distance
c: Thunder is usually heard up to twelve miles from the lightning strike. Given the right terrain, humidity, and background noise that distance might be significantly less or slightly more. Generally, if you can hear thunder then you are in danger from lightning.
d: Lightning strikes can reach up to ten miles beyond the leading edge of a storm, which explains why many lightning deaths and injuries occur under cloudless skiesa: consider issues such as early storm identification of through weather monitoring
i. seeing lightning or hearing thunder is generally adequate
b: address the evacuation of patrons to pre-established safe zones
ii. indoor environments or urban areas with high levels of ambient noise might need other sources such asI: weather radio
II: weather television
III: internet weather sites
IV: lightning detection devices - these are available but are often expensive and unnecessary if there is sufficient awareness and monitoring via other meansi. good choice: dry area inside significant permanent buildings - but avoid
c: include a communication system that ensures all involved staff are well versed in severe weather protocol and that they are capable of directing the participants of their program to safetyI: windows
ii. potentially good choice: a car, but only if it has a hard roof and glass windows; avoid any metal component
II: use of or proximity to anything electrical, including switches and anything plugged into the electrical system
III: use of or proximity to telephones
IV: all plumbing
V: any metal objects
iii. better than nothing choice: if caught in the open with no major building accessible,I: stay close to the ground
iv. bad choice: sheds, picnic shelters, dugouts, or other open shelters
II: squat in a cannonball...touch the ground with only your feet
III: do not lie down on the ground
IV: avoid trees or any tall object... they don't provide shelter, they attract the lightning
v. really bad choice: anywhere under trees or on a pool deck (even inside)
d: include criteria for when to stop and when to resume activitiesi. The general rule is known as the 30/30 rule. If you can't count to 30 (saying one-one thousand, etc.) from when see lightning until you hear thunder, immediately take appropriate shelter. Stay there for 30 minutes beyond the time when you last hear thunder or see lightning.
ii. The 30/30 rule only provides about six miles of separation from the storm. Because lightning is more common at the back edge of a storm and because it may extend over ten miles from its origin, more conservative guidelines suggest maintaining a ten mile differential (i.e., counting to 50).
iii. If a storm is slow-moving, prudence would delay resumption beyond 30 minutes to ensure safe separation.
For the most part, outdoor activities are fully addressed under General Protocols above. All staff should be well trained in all of the procedures. Participants should be familiar enough that if the need arises, they know what to do without creating chaos. Emergencies are no place for on-the-job training.
If the activity planned is not held immediately adjacent to the YMCA facility, staff should locate, investigate, and obtain permission to access a suitable significant structure in which to take refuge in case of lightning before the activity commences.
If the activity is at a site where no suitable structure exists (e.g., many parks and athletic fields), certain precautions should be made. There should be adequate transportation present at the site to remove or shelter all the participants if necessary. That transportation should be such that there is not significant exposed metal that may endanger the occupants. For activities where the YMCA does not transport the children (e.g., parents bring them), protocols should require the parents to stay for the game or practice. Besides ensuring adequate shelter and/or transportation in case of an electrical storm, it also benefits the parent-child relationship and improves abuse prevention watchfulness.
It is prudent to have a cancellation notification protocol that informs of program suspension or cancellation via radio, television, website, or telephone call-in and gives the site to which participants will be transported when there is no safe haven at the program location.
Adventure camps or trips generally go to areas where seeking safety in a building is not an option. Experts agree that you should stay clear of high-risk areas when thunderstorms are likely. No matter which geographical region, during the summer mountains frequently breed late-afternoon thunderstorms, normally from 2 to 6 p.m. As the day progresses avoid mountaintops and high ridges (especially any that hide your view of oncoming storms), exposed areas, and lakes. The summer-in-the-mountains rule is "up high by noon, back down by two."
Aquatic activities
The policy to clear an outdoor pool is one that is long established and well understood by the public. The danger can be clearly seen and heard. The general protocols above apply to all aquatic activity. In addition,
- 1: Develop an evacuation plan that brings pool patrons (i.e., individuals coming from an outdoor, active environment who probably are not fully clothed and are possibly wet) safely and orderly into shelter.
2: Designate at least one safe zone within your building...not on an interior pool deck and not in locker rooms; it must be able to accommodate individuals who may be wet and might get chilled.
3: When lightning is within ten miles (this is more conservative than the 30/30 rule) suspend all activity in the pool area and evacuate people to the established safe area(s). Guards should clear the entire pool area and lock the entrance. Frequent practice by the life-guards and staff as well as clear communication with the swimmers will help to achieve this goal.
4: Resume activities only when safe: Assuming typical storm speeds (20 to 25 mph), you may resume activities in the pool 30 minutes after the last observed lightning or thunder. Lifeguards must be sure to be in appropriate position for surveillance before activities resume. Continue to monitor for additional severe weather.
Thus, if lightning strikes the ground near an indoor pool, it may enter the building through various low resistance conductors that come into contact with the building. It is even possible for adjacent wet ground or nearby tree roots to be sufficient conductors. Just because a pool was electrically grounded when initially built does not mean that changes to plumbing, wiring, or the structure itself have not compromised that protection. Even an indoor pool should never be presumed safe from the effects of lightning.
There are no confirmed lightning-caused deaths of individuals in indoor pools, but there are numerous documented cases where lightning has traversed a structure and killed an individual who was inside it. They were generally using the telephone, touching metal doors or windows, or were in contact with water sources such as sinks, bathtubs, and showers. Examples of observed pool-related lightning damage include the destruction of a main circulation pump, injuries to employees touching electrical panels, the concrete footing of a slide blown apart, and even visible lightning inside the pool area.
Clearing an indoor pool of patrons during an electrical storm may seem counterintuitive to the average person since the very purpose of such a pool is to provide a place to swim during less-than-ideal weather conditions. However, being sufficient to provide shelter from wind and rain and cold does not insulate it from potential electrical disaster via unseen defects or unexpected conditions. Complaints and objections will probably be voiced by the uninformed. Explain the potential for harm...the reasonable will agree that even repeated inconvenience is preferable to catastrophe. Setting patron safety as the first priority, the only reasonable approach to lightning safety is to cease all aquatic activity during nearby electrical disturbances., including that conducted indoors.
Please call us at 800-463-8546 to discuss this or any other risk management concern, or visit our web site at www.redwoodsgroup.com to learn more about YMCA risk management related issues.
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