Severe storms sweep Northeast, teen struck by lightning in Central Park
The lightning hit the tree and transferred through a metal chain necklace he was wearing, authorities said.
Severe thunderstorms blew through the Northeast on June 19 with powerful winds, knocking down trees, collapsing roads, igniting power lines and causing widespread damage, delays and outages for up to half a million customers.
Rounds of severe thunderstorms hammered the I-95 corridor Thursday, bringing damaging winds, torrential rain and intense lightning to major metro areas including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City. More than 600,000 customers lost power across the region at the height of the outages. That number was down to around 300,000 by Friday morning, according to PowerOutage.US.
A 15-year-old boy having a picnic with friends near the East Meadow in Central Park was struck by lightning while sheltering under a tree around 3:40 p.m.
"I leaned up against a tree, and I told them, Oh, guys, let's ride out the storm, which in hindsight might not have been the best idea," the teen told ABC 7.
The lightning hit the tree and transferred through a metal chain necklace he was wearing, according to the New York Times. He was knocked unconscious for a few minutes but was alert when he was rushed to Weill Cornell hospital and is in stable condition with minor burns, according to police.
"Apparently, I'm pretty lucky, because my spine was directly against the tree and no nerve damage happened. So I'm like, not losing any sort of motor function. So I'm pretty happy about that," the teen said.
The area of the park was temporarily cordoned off as showers continued to fall. The strike occurred while NYC was under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning.
About 90% of people struck by lightning survive, according to the National Weather Service, although lightning is the third highest cause of weather-related deaths after flooding and extreme heat.
A quick but intense thunderstorm also tore through parts of Brooklyn Thursday evening. In the Clinton Hill neighborhood, strong winds broke tree branches and scattered leaves across the street. Local resident Monique Mortise filmed the aftermath writing, “The storm only seems like it lasted about like two minutes before the sun came, and this is what it did. The wind was crazy!”
Damage was reported around the Tri-state area. In Queens, a massive tree fell on a car in Ridgewood, and toppled trees totaled parked vehicles in Maspeth.
More than 600,000 households lost electricity from Virginia up through New York as severe thunderstorms ripped through the area on June 19.
In D.C., strong gusts triggered a partial construction collapse. In Bethesda, Maryland, a tree took down power lines, sparking a fire that scorched a parked truck. No injuries were reported.
The storms also brought major flight delays to JFK, LaGuardia, Newark and Philadelphia, with more than 9,000 flights delayed or canceled nationwide, according to FlightAware.com
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