A total of 22 persons were killed and 56 injured in 149
lightning strikes by July 9 this year in southwest China's Guizhou
Province, according to the provincial lightning prevention
office.
Most deaths were farmers, office officials said. A recent
tragedy on July 4 hit a family in Puding County, Anshun City,
killing the husband and the daughter and hurting the wife in legs
and the son in eyes. They were eating the evening meal under a
light which might have become the conductor for lightning,
according to Tang Baojun, office director.
In another similar case a father and a son were killed when they
stayed under a light on a thunderstorm day, Tang said.
Tang said the province has a high frequency of lightning
strikes. That deaths were mainly farmers was because they lack both
lightning prevention knowledge and fund to install lightning-proof
facilities. He suggested governments of all levels invest more
money to spread knowledge on lightning in farmers and help them
install necessary equipment.
In a remote rural village, nicknamed "the lightning village" in
west of central China's Hunan Province, 11 local farmers were
killed and 143 were injured in the past 25 years.
It is located in a lightning-prone area and its geographic
location is vulnerable to lightning strikes, according to Xu
Yongsheng, senior engineer of the provincial lightning prevention
center.
Since the low-voltage lines were set up in the village in
1979,lightning strikes rose dramatically. Farmers lived in
nightmare and had to cut off electricity wire when lightning
happened. Some even considered to abolish use of electricity and
abandon all wires.
In addition to human deaths and injures, 20 head of cattle were
killed and over 100 head of domestic animals were injured.
Lightning also damaged 150 TV sets and the village's transformer 11
times, according to eyewitnesses.
The provincial capital allocated 500,000 yuan for the village to
install lightning prevention project. The first phase of the
project has been completed with installation of a 220-meter-tall
lightning rod tower near a local elementary school and other
facilities. Farmers said the strikes have been on decline over the
past three years since the project began.
The second and third phases of the project were yet to be
started and experts said hidden dangers remained.
China has been on alert of lightning strikes in this summer
thunderstorm season. An early report of a lightning strike that
killed more than a dozen of villagers in east China's Zhejiang
Province has prompted nationwide attention to lightning-related
deaths and injures.
The Chinese capital of Beijing Saturday was hit by an
unprecedented heavy rainstorm along with roaring lightning strikes,
but no deaths and injures from lightning have been reported so far.
The city is guarding against more thunderstorms that will follow as
the meteorological station predicted.
(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2004)