The grandmother had a stroke and the teenager was left in a coma with serious injury to his brain. Almost one year later the teen is still hospitalized, suffering effects of the lightning strike. His recovery is slow, but he continues to make progress. Statistics for 1996 could have been even worse. During the summer, an air traffic control radar connection was struck at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport forcing awkward backup measures, and a commercial Right carrying 169 passengers was forced to land at Tampa International Airport after being struck.
Lightning occurs almost daily in Florida during the summer and strikes literally without warning.
A pertinent safety rule that needs to be stressed is to keep an eye on the sky and go inside if at all possible when thunderstorms begin to develop. Submitted to Weather and Forecasting 1996. The local Meteorological Environment of Lightning Casualties in Central Florida. Preprints, Conference on Atmospheric Electricity , St. Louis, Amer. Statistical Abstract of the United States, U.S. Govt.