A mother was killed on Thursday after she was struck by lightning near a Florida park, according to local officials. Her child was also hospitalized because of the strike, but the child’s current condition is not clear.
Police in Winter Springs, which is just north of Orlando, said they responded Thursday afternoon to reports that multiple people had been hit by lightning near a local park. Authorities provided “immediate lifesaving aid” to the mother and child and both were hospitalized.
Authorities did not name the victim out of respect for her privacy, adding, “City staff extends our deepest condolences to the family and will keep them in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”
Though lightning strikes are rare — the odds of being hit by lightning in a given year are less than one in a million, according to the CDC — multiple people have been killed already this year. Lightning in Washington, D.C., killed 3 people and critically injured another earlier this month; weeks earlier, a soldier was killed in a lightning strike at a Georgia Army base.
While almost every state has reported a lightning strike, the CDC calls Florida the “lightning capital” of the nation, citing the more than 2,000 recorded incidences of lightning injuries in the last 50 years. More than 30 people in Florida have died from the strikes, the CDC said.
