Fond du Lac County emergency management officials are warning people take lightning seriously, and go indoors when you hear thunder. Lightning strikes kill an average of 47 people a year in the country…but direct lightning strikes are not the biggest threat. Direct and contact strikes account for only 3-5 percent of lightning deaths and injuries. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ground current, which spread out over the ground after lightning strikes, are the big danger, accounting for 50-55 percent of all lightning deaths and injuries. Fond du Lac County Emergency management director, Bobbie Hicken, says lightning can strike as far away as ten miles from any rainfall. Hicken says if you hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning. Lightning injures more people than it kills. Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, a leading lightning injury expert says , approximately 90 percent of those lightning hits survive, but often with long-lasting neurological damage.
