Tak students terrified after fatal lightning strike

By The Nation

 

 

TAK: -- Its students still terrified after a lightning strike killed one pupil and injured 43 other students and teachers, a primary school in Tak remained closed on Wednesday.

 

Umphang district chief Prateep Phothiam said the pupils of Ban Mae Klong Yai School were still too frightened to return to school after Tuesday’s tragedy.

 

He said more students and teachers had gone to Umphang Hospital, most complaining about ringing in their ears, and had been sent home after treatment.

 

Prateep said six students remained in hospital, but their condition was not critical. Col Prasarn Henprasert, deputy commander of Army Taskforce 14 based in Mae Sot district, visited them on Wednesday.

 

Sixth-grader Tong Saesung, 12, was killed when lightning struck a tree next to the school on Tuesday at about 3pm.

 

Panya Charnchatwareera, head of the Tambon Mokro administrative organisation, which operates the school, said 49 teachers and students from Grades 5 and 6 were conducting an outdoor activity at the spot where the lightning struck. 

 

Initially 30 teachers and pupils were taken to the hospital about 70 kilometres away.

 

The school was built by Border Patrol Police Command 34 and responsibility for its operation transferred to Mokro administrators. It has 260 students from kindergarten to Grade 6, most of them ethnic Hmong.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30316158

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-05-24

I hope that's a picture of the tree and not the school.

I live about 45 km from the school but in a straight line across the mountains and the national park (350 km by road) and we had a lightning strike about the same time on the land behind the house.

 

It woke me up and I nearly crapped myself as it was so close to us.

 

Luckily enough nobody was outside at the time but it was scary and the closest one to the house in the 13 years we have lived here. Oddly enough there was very little rain.

 

I feel sorry for the children and especially sorry for the parents of Sixth-grader Tong Saesung, 12. He is the same age as my son. They must be devastated.

It can be really frightening, If only we could harness it

Time for a fresh set of amulets

1 hour ago, billd766 said:

Luckily enough nobody was outside at the time but it was scary and the closest one to the house in the 13 years we have lived here. Oddly enough there was very little rain.

Lightning doesn't need rain - all the static making takes place right up in the clouds between ice crystals. In fact, it doesn't like rain at all as it slows its path to earth/between clouds and zaps its power. Always beware when you're in an electrical storm and the rain dies down.. particularly at the edge. 

2 hours ago, natway09 said:

It can be really frightening, If only we could harness it

Shelly writes that Dr. Frankenstein did. And  "Its Alive.Its Alive" !

teachers should have know about trees and lightning