International Lightning Safety Day: 2024 Lightning Death Toll Already at 3
It can take a while before we hear of lightning deaths
I’m sorry to report that during Lightning Safety Week this year, we had a lightning strike death:
News 12 New Jersey: Police: Man who died while getting kids off Seaside Park beach was struck by lightning
A man who died over the weekend while trying to get kids off the Seaside Park beach during a storm was struck by lightning, according to police.
Patrick Dispoto, 58, died at the hospital on Sunday after he was found unconscious on the beach. His girlfriend Ruth tells News 12 he made sure she was safe inside his truck before heading up the dune and onto the sand to get some kids off of the beach. Then the storm hit.
An autopsy confirmed on Tuesday that Dispoto died an accidental death caused by lightning.
The death comes as Seaside Park officials were working on upgraded lighting detection systems.
According to John Jensenius of the Lightning Safety Council, this is the third reported lightning strike death in the U.S. for 2024.
The first was in Tallahassee, Florida back in March, of a man walking in a field in a park. It wasn’t reported in March, and didn’t come out until recently.
The National Lightning Safety Council announced Monday that it had confirmed Smith’s death by lightning. The organization said it was one of two confirmed lightning deaths this year in the U.S. and the first in Florida. The Sunshine State leads the nation in lightning deaths, with 89 since 2006, the council said.
The second was a man branding cattle in a field in Colorado in May. Thirty-seven cows were also killed.
The lightning bolt struck on wide open pasture outside the town of Rand, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) northwest of Denver, said George Crocket, the county coroner. Crocket said the lightning that struck Morgan also knocked about 100 cows and calves off their feet, killing 34 cows and three calves.
New Jersey vs. Florida Lightning Deaths
The last lightning strike deaths in New Jersey were in 2021, and the last one was at the same beach:
And yes, there were no recorded deaths between 2012 and 2021.
You can contrast that with Florida, which tends to have a few deaths every year:
Obviously, there are differences of the weather as well as the activities of people in the particular states that leads to differences in death incidences. Florida is up there, along with other southerly states like Texas.
International Lightning Safety Day: June 28
Here is a video from John Jensenius from 2021 about International Lightning Safety Day:
While lightning strike deaths are greatly down in the U.S. compared to a century ago, it is still a great threat worldwide where lightning storms and lack of shelter exists. As Jensenius mentions, group lightning strikes with multiple people killed still occur.
Top Activities Associated with Lightning Strike Deaths
As you can see, the most recently recorded death was on the beach in New Jersey. How common is that as a site/activity in lightning deaths?
The top three activities are water-related, on or near bodies of water: fishing, beach activities, or boating.
Many of the activities are recreational in nature, but there is also a certain amount of people doing work: farming/ranching, roofing, construction, yardwork.
In many of these cases, people may have difficulty in reaching shelter in time.
Alas, in the case of Patrick Dispoto, he was trying to see to the safety of others when he was struck.
When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors!
Historical Lightning Strike Death: Verdi’s Curse Realized
Let me take a bit of a detour.
This is a story I’ve known for years (and want to use in a book on Purgatory): when Verdi was a small child, serving in Mass, he was kicked by the priest for missing his cue, and Verdi responded by cursing him.
Let me grab this version of the story:
When Verdi was about seven years old, he served as an altar boy at the church of San Michele in his birthplace of Roncole. During Mass, the young Verdi failed to respond promptly to the priest’s request for water and wine. The priest shoved Verdi, and the child fell from the altar. The humiliated boy responded with the peasant curse: “Dio t’manda ‘na sajetta!” (“May God strike you with lightning!”). In a surreal turn of events, eight years later the priest was indeed struck by lightning and killed.
According to this version, it wasn’t only the priest who was killed, but also 6 other people. I doubt Verdi wanted all of them to die in that way.
As an adult Verdi was neither religious nor superstitious, but as a fourteen-year-old he was horrified and guilt-stricken at the idea that his childish curse (“May you be struck by lightning!“) had come true. In his operas there are several scenes in which people are terrified by curses, for instance when Rigoletto sings to the darkest and most threatening music: Quel vecchio maledivami! = That old man cursed me!
Verdi lost several people, including his first wife and their children, to sudden deaths, so he may have had some of this hanging over him.
But given how he ended his career with Falstaff, I think he reconciled himself that sometimes these things are accidental.