In eastern India, at least 45 people died as a result of lightning strikes during a thunderstorm that thundered on Wednesday night, June 22. The exact number of victims of the disaster is still unknown, since messages to the regional authorities reach from remote areas slowly.
Showers with thunderstorms rage for several days in the Indian state of Bihar. The unfavorable weather damaged dozens of houses and buildings. Meteorologists note that thunderstorms will not stop in the coming days. This can lead to new deaths.
The rainy season in India is often accompanied by thunderstorms
Photo: DESHAKALYAN CHOWDHURY / AFP
Hundreds of people fall victim to lightning in India every year. This often happens during the monsoon season, which lasts from June to September. The most common victims of lightning are peasants working in a field or other open area.
In other parts of the world, deaths from lightning strikes are less frequent. Every year from 6 to 24 thousand people die from a lightning strike in the world. In the United States, lightning kills 40-50 people a year. Moreover, 70% of lightning victims are men. How many people die from lightning strikes in Russia is unknown. “But not because the information is classified, it's just that no one considers them here. And in the USA they do. The statistics are kept by insurance companies,”said Eduard Bazelyan, Doctor of Technical Sciences from the Krzhizhanovsky Energy Institute.
Lightning is a threat to all living things. If lightning strikes a person's chest, then an instant cardiac arrest occurs, and death immediately occurs. The chances of surviving a lightning strike in the head are also very small. If an electrical discharge hits the hands or feet, the person gets severe burns. Almost always, after being struck, lightning leaves on the victim's body ornate drawings resembling lightning itself.
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The amazing behavior of lightning
It is still unclear why lightning strikes exactly one specific person who is surrounded by hundreds of the same people. All attempts of scientists to identify some kind of algorithm for such a behavior of the elements have led nowhere. A strange incident happened in Japan. The schoolchildren went on a hike together with the teacher. In order not to get lost, they grabbed one rope, which was suddenly struck by lightning. Children died after one - even died, odd ones survived.
Lightning is a danger to people
Photo: RAKESH BAKSHI / AFP
American Roy Sullivan got into the Guinness Book of Records due to the fact that he was struck by lightning seven times. This is despite the fact that in the United States, according to statistics, the probability of a person being struck by lightning during his lifetime is 1: 3000. Each time the men managed to survive. In later years, people avoided Sullivan for fear of being struck by lightning with him.
As a result, he committed suicide for unclear reasons. After his funeral, a thunderstorm broke out over the cemetery. Lightning struck Sullivan's grave and split the headstone in half. Eyewitnesses joked that it was a "test shot".
Another famous victim of lightning was a resident of Bulgaria Marta Maikia. However, the electric discharges were not pursuing Martha herself, but her husbands. Her first husband was struck by lightning two months after the wedding, and the second was overtaken by lightning during a honeymoon trip.
After the death of her second husband, the woman experienced severe stress and went to Germany for treatment. Martha was brought out of the state of depression by a German doctor-psychotherapist, with whom she developed a romantic relationship. The young people decided to get married. Marta left for Bulgaria, and soon the groom followed her. However, on the way, the man was caught in a thunderstorm, lightning pierced the roof of the car and dealt a fatal blow to the doctor. After this incident, Martha decided not to get married again.
Englishman Darren Milne walked with his wife in Bryce Canyon National Park in the American state of Utah. Suddenly a strong wind blew and hail began. The Englishman heard a strong crunch and passed out. I woke up from the screams of my wife. “His clothes were torn, sneakers were lying a few meters away … Everything was covered in blood, there was the smell of burning flesh, and the hair on his head was completely burnt,” the wife later recalled.
It turned out that lightning struck Milne's head. Having passed through his entire body, the lightning went into the ground, leaving terrible scars on the man's skin. However, he managed to survive, which puzzled the doctors. According to doctors, a person is not able to endure such discharges. At the same time, experts do not exclude that Milne's psychic abilities may open.
Strange behavior and psychic abilities
Although such cases seem surprising, they still happen in the practice of doctors. Researchers cite examples that in one patient, after a lightning strike, coins in his trouser pocket melted, turning into a copper ball, another melted a gold tooth, and a third boiled sweat, enveloping it in a cloud of steam. But they all survived. Often after such cases, people begin to behave strangely.
Lightning behavior is unpredictable and little studied by researchers
Photo: MLADEN ANTONOV / AFP
“One of my patients acted like a two-year-old after being hit. Another lost his short-term memory, he had to write everything down,”recalled Dr. Handler from the USA. Some do indeed acquire amazing abilities. For example, it is widely known that the Pakistani peasant Naftula Mohammed, after being struck by lightning, began to speak the purest Japanese language. He was even suspected of being a Japanese spy. However, later it turned out that the peasant was illiterate, had never been to Japan and had not studied the language.
Scientists see several reasons for the emergence of such abilities. According to one of them, an electric discharge can affect the "dormant" centers of the brain, awakening their potential and opening up new possibilities for a person. According to another theory, superpowers are already inherent in some people from birth, and lightning “choose” exactly those people who have some kind of gift.
However, both the lightning itself and the potential of the human brain have been studied very little by specialists. Therefore, scientists advise in no case to experiment with lightning and not try to get hit by them on purpose, in order to gain abilities. It is best not to be in an open area during a thunderstorm and follow basic safety rules.