Swimming teacher ‘jolted’ by close lightning strike

It strikes themost in July— usually with deadly consequences.

A Lauderdale Lakes swim instructor was lucky she was only “jolted” and “dazed” after a close call with a nearby bolt of lightning Monday morning.

The bolt struck about 300 feet away as the 27-year-old woman was getting out of her car after waiting out a thunderstorm in the parking lot of the Lauderdale Lakes Swimming Pool Complex. It did not knock her to the ground — she was able to walk inside on her own— but it did send chunks of concrete flying.

“The jolt was massive enough that she felt the shock from it,” said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles. “She was fortunate that the lightning bolt struck some distance away.”

The lightning actually struck a concrete antenna structure at Oriole Elementary School next door to the aquatics complex.

The woman, whose identity was not released, was treated at Florida Medical Center and released by noon, Jachles said.

Florida isn’t called the “Lightning Capital of the U.S.A.” for nothing.

“Lightning is something to be feared,” Jachles said. “Lightning is something to take seriously.”

The Sunshine State consistently leads the nation in lightning deaths, with 51 people killed from 2007 to 2016. That’s more than double the 21 fatalities in Texas, the next closest state during the same period, according to the National Weather Service.

Annually, Florida sees about six lightning fatalities and 39 injuries, according to the Division of Emergency