http://www.craftymom101.com/2012/08/parenting-lightning-safety.html

Our family had a bit of a lightning safety wake-up call this past week - my father was zapped by an electrical surge from a nearby lightning strike while he was in the shower! Yikes! I am happy to report that he's doing fine and survived without any injury... but he was very shaken! Of course, after I learned he wasn't harmed in any way, I had to poke a little fun at him... after all, it was always my parents who warned me about getting into the shower when there was thunder about.

That got me thinking... how many of those old wives tales we've heard about lightning are true?


The answer turns out to be pretty much all of them. All that nonsense you've heard about not cooking during a storm, or using your computer, or being outside at all, or swimming, or bathing or anything else, is all based on cold, hard facts.

Here's the low-down on lightning safety, ladies and gents. Some of these things are often over-looked, but they are important lessons we should be teaching our kids. In fact, your child is three times more likely to be struck by lightning than abducted by a stranger! No joke! Now think about all those "Stranger Danger" chats you've had and compare them to the talks about lightning you've belabored your kids with. So far this year, there have already been 20 deaths on record from lightning strikes and who knows how many more injuries. I'm not trying to scare the pants off you, exactly, but it's one of those things we need to actively teach our kids about.

The National Weather Service is chock-full of all the safety advice you could possibly need, and I encourage you to check out their site! Of course, there's an awesome mascot names "Leon," and you can print a great coloring book full of lightning safety tips for kids! They also make these handy videos to keep you up-to-date on the latest in lightning safety (hey, I know my kids believe it more if they hear it from a video than my mouth...)

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q9t4ZuKcaY&feature=player_embedded

However, if you're feeling lazy and don't want to run off to check out any of the awesome resources I've just given you (yes, that does make you lazy) here's lightning safety in a nutshell:

• If you can hear thunder, even the faintest rumble, you're within striking distance. The only way to get out of the strike zone is to get indoors. Not "under the carport" or "under the cabana at the pool" indoors, but inside of an actual building, with a roof, walls and floors as well as a pipe system OR a fully-enclosed vehicle. Fully-enclosed. As in with a roof and all four doors attached.
• Don't use anything electrical when you hear thunder (I was actually delayed in writing this post for a good long time thanks to a raging south Florida storm. Irony!) If it's plugged into the wall and you're holding or touching it during a storm, you're asking for it, really. This goes for land-line phones too. Think about it, folks, if one of those power or phone lines gets struck somewhere along the way to your house, you're just holding on to the other end begging to be a victim! Yikes!
• Don't shower or bathe or swim if you hear thunder. Even if you have plastic pipes in your house instead of metal ones, the tap water you shower or bathe in is full of impurities that will happily carry along a current to give you a mighty big zap! The odds of you being the one who receives this shock while you're in the shower are slim... but it happens. Just ask my dad!