Resqdivemedic

Recived this today from another forum I am on. Talk about a bad day.

Lightning kills scuba diver

Lightning killed one man Sunday as storms again battered South Florida, and meteorologists predict more of the same today and Tuesday.
BY ROBBYN MITCHELL
rmitchell@MiamiHerald.com

Sunday's wet afternoon turned tragic when lightning struck and killed a scuba diver who was surfacing in the ocean off Hillsboro Inlet.

His death was one of several incidents in Broward and Miami-Dade counties linked to the heavy rain and thunderstorms that engulfed the area.

The bolt struck the 36-year-old diver about 3:30 p.m. as he was surfacing from 30 feet beneath the boat he was on with friends and fellow divers.

The three other divers struggled to get him out of the water, called for help and beached the boat in the 600 block of North Ocean Drive in Deerfield Beach, where the city's fire department was standing by for a rescue effort, said Gary Fernaay, division chief of the Deerfield Beach Fire Department.

The diver, whose name was not released Sunday, was taken to North Broward General Medical Center where he died after being treated for cardiac arrest. The Broward County Medical Examiner's Office will conduct an autopsy to determine if the death was caused by electrocution or drowning, Fernaay said.

glynneco

My condolonces to his family

__________________
Is that the bottom of the quarry or is the vis just really bad today?

Scuba Mama

More information. It was the first dive and he was with his brother. They did know the storms warnings had been issued. Lighting especially is Florida is a major threat. I feel bad for the loss to the family.

I only come up once to find it storming with lighting. I was scared for a reason.

Resqdivemedic

I do alot of training for lifeguards in my area. One thing I found and recommend during training is a lightning detector. These pager size devices can detect lightning strikes up to 40 miles away. The also have a distance indicator which lets you know how for the storm is from you and. Maybe a good piece of equipment if you are diving in a high risk lightning strike area.

Resqdivemedic

Follow up to original post:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Diver was electrocuted, autopsy confirms
By Ken Kaye

An autopsy conducted by the Broward Medical Examiner determined Stephen Wilson, 36, died from electrocution after his SCUBA tank was struck by lightning. Wilson had been diving in the Atlantic Ocean off Deerfield Beach on Sunday afternoon.

The incident took place during an afternoon of severe thunderstorms that pelted the region, from Miami to West Palm Beach, with torrential rains, strong winds and pea-sized hail.

At the time of the strike, about 3 p.m., two divers were on a 20-foot boat and two were in the water, said Deerfield Beach Fire Division Chief Gary Fernaays.When one of the divers in the water surfaced, "lighting struck his tank," Fernaays said. "He was approximately 30 feet from the boat at the time."

Wilson, a Deerfield Beach resident, went under water as the other divers attempted to rescue him. It took about 10 minutes for them to get the victim into the boat, Fernaays said. During that time, they radioed for help. Then they drove the boat toward shore and beached it in the 600 block of North Ocean Boulevard, where Deerfield Fire-Rescue already was waiting, Fernaays said.

Wilson, who had gone into cardiac arrest, was given CPR. He was taken to North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

In Margate, lightning also struck a two-story house in the 3000 block of Green Turtle Place, leaving a hole in the roof about 3 feet in diameter and setting a second-floor bedroom on fire, Police Sgt. Andy Zettek said. There were no injuries, as no one was home. The blaze left the home uninhabitable, he said.

The reason squally weather hit so hard on Sunday: Two lines of thunderstorms converged on South Florida from two different directions, said meteorologist Dan Gregoria of the National Weather Service, in Miami.

"Storms developed along the Atlantic coast and started to move inland," he said. "Other storms developed out over the Everglades and moved into the metro areas as well."

East-central Broward County was hit hardest, receiving about 2 to 3 inches of rain, Gregoria said. The weather service issued an urban flood advisory, though no serious flooding was reported on Sunday, other than puddles in streets and low-lying areas.

In Palm Beach County, the metro areas received between .25 and .6 inches of rain, although about 2 inches fell right at the county line, said weather service meteorologist Barry Baxter.

A tornado was reported at about 3:10 p.m. in the 2100 block of Northwest 29th Court in Oakland Park, but officials couldn't confirm that a twister actually touched down.

Even so, the weather in that area was "really bad," said Richard Tingley, a Broward Sheriff's Office communications operator who lives near there.

"There was a lot of rain and wind," he said. "You couldn't even see the car in front of you."