Lightening Storm Leaves 2 dead, 7 Injured In California
A woman walking under a tree was struck and killed by lightning, one of thousands of strikes that touched off spot fires and injured seven others as a gusty storm pounded California. Another woman was killed by a falling tree.
Authorities said Tina Bond, 40, was killed by a bolt Wednesday afternoon as she walked along a sidewalk in Fontana, in San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles.
Police Sgt. Jeff Decker said the bolt blew out the bottoms of the victim’s shoes and hurled some of her clothing 30 feet away.
National Weather Service meteorologist James Oh said there was at least one lightning strike every minute for a couple of hours Wednesday in San Bernardino County, where both deaths and most of the injuries occurred.
Northern California received more than 1,000 lightning strikes from Wednesday night into Thursday morning, the weather service said.
