Event Safety Insights Issue One | Fall 2016 | Page 26

When Thunder Roars,

Go Indoors

Lightning Safety Planning
By Dr. Kevin Kloesel
Lightning kills

thousands of people
across the globe every year. Lightning also arrives with an audible alert system (thunder).
Thunder is an immediate warning of dangerous
conditions outside. If thunder is heard, anyone
outside is in danger of being struck by lightning.
It does not have to be raining for lightning to occur. In fact, many lightning fatalities occur when
rain is not falling. Other threats, such as damaging
winds, large hail, flash flooding, or even a tornado, also may be present. When lightning threatens, immediate action needs to occur to promote
life safety. A good Lightning Safety Plan specifies
the actions that will be taken.
The following is a quick, eight-point outline of
items to be included in any Lightning Safety Plan.
A good plan will include at least these elements.
Your plan may include more elements, but it is
important that every lightning plan include the
specific people in the chain of command responsible for implementing and acting on the plan.
Once you have your plan, follow it! Hoping that
the storm misses your location is not a plan.
The following items are from guidance provided by the National Weather Service (NWS), the
Event Safety Alliance, and the National Center for
Spectator Sports Safety and Security. These organizations are at the forefront of protecting life and
property, and serve as tremendous resources in
developing any emergency plan.
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ITEM 1: Set a minimum safe lightning radius appropriate to the current meteorological research regarding lightning behavior.
The current standard of care in lightning protection is to use an 8-mile (13 km) radius as the safe
zone. The 8-mile (13 km) standard has been implemented by dozens of sports and entertainment
organizations, including the National Collegiate
Athletics Association (See Guideline 1.E of the
NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook 2014-2015),
the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (ncs4.com), and the Event Safety
Alliance (eventsafetyalliance.org). The goal of every Lightning Safety Plan should be to complete
the evacuation of your outdoor entertainment or
event space before lightning reaches the 8-mile
(13 km) radius.

ITEM 2: Be flexible enough to increase the
minimum lightning radius against factors
such as crowd size, crowd demographics/
mobility, location and distance to available shelter, the speed of the storm, etc.