DAVAO CITY –— FIve in a group of six were kileld when a lightning hit their tent while on vacation at Camp Madeg’ger, Barangay Binaton, Digos City, Davao del Sur at 6:30 last night April 9, Easter Sunday.
The five victims were decalred dead upon arrival at a local hospital in Digos City, some 62 kilometers away from this city.
The lone survivor is still confined at the hospital.
According to the report of Digos City PNP, the victims from Camp Madeg’ger were having a picnic going to Barangay Soong, Digos when suddenly heavy rains came down causing the group to take shelter in a hut but a strong lightning hit them directly.
A lightning strikes in a single second but it is dangerous since its power is exrtraordinary, each bolt can contain up to a billion volts of elecrticity.
Naitonal geogrpahic says, a typical cloud-to-ground lightning bolt begins when a step-like series of negative charges, called a stepped leader, races downward from the bottom of a storm cloud toward the Earth along a channel at about 200,000 mph (300,000 kph). Each of these segments is about 150 feet (46 meters) long.
When the lowermost step comes within 150 feet (46 meters) of a positively charged object, it is met by a climbing surge of positive electricity, called a streamer, which can rise up through a building, a tree, or even a person (National Geographic).
