One person was killed and three others were injured when a group of Florida beachgoers was struck by lightning on Friday afternoon \u2014 with witnesses describing the terrifying moment as sounding like \u201can atomic bomb went off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The summer revelers were zapped while swimming in the Gulf at Fort Myers Beach around 3 p.m., WINK News<\/a> reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n One swimmer, an unidentified man, was struck directly and died. Three other swimmers, who were wading in the ocean near the strike, were injured and rushed to a nearby hospital, according to Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District Chief Scott Wirth. <\/p>\n The conditions of the injured beachgoers were not immediately known.<\/p>\n An unidentifed adult male was killed after he was directly struck by lightning while swimming in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, Friday afternoon. Winknews<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden, it sounded like an atomic bomb went off,\u201d beachgoer Debra Crombie told WINK News.<\/p>\n \u201cI could see the flash, and I couldn\u2019t see at that moment where it had hit, but I knew it had hit either on the beach or right at the shoreline,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so bright our ears hurt, our eyes were blinded by it, like that\u2019s how intense this was.\u201d<\/p>\n Crombie, who was on her annual vacation to Fort Myers, Fla., with her family when the tragedy struck, said one of her relatives saw the lightning strike the water before it \u201csplit in two.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden it sounded like an atomic bomb went off,\u201d beachgoer Debra Crombie said. Getty Images<\/p>\n Parts of the East Coast have been hit with severe thunderstorms during the intense heatwave leading up to the 4th of July weekend. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so at that point, we saw kids running off the beach back to our resort and they were screaming and I\u2019m like, oh boy, I bet somebody got hit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The man who was directly struck was pulled from the water and CPR measures were attempted, but he had died by the time emergency responders arrived at the scene, the outlet reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crombie believes the tragic beachgoer was staying at her resort with his family.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw his child earlier in the day, and everyone was crying on and off, and I just can\u2019t stop thinking about this family, and my heart just breaks for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was supposed to be this beautiful experience on beautiful Fort Myers Beach and now it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n The vacationer said that while the stretch of Fort Myers Beach that was hit is rarely crowded, there were \u201ca considerable number of people\u201d from out of town who may not have been aware of the risks of swimming during thunderstorms.<\/p>\n The holiday weekend brought more people to the usually quiet Florida beach. Winknews<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes you think these people can\u2019t be from Florida. They don\u2019t understand how deadly the lightning is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not judging them but\u2026we were looking at it like why are the kids on the beach?\u201d<\/p>\n Thunderstorms are also predicted to hit parts of the East Coast<\/a> throughout the Fourth of July weekend \u2014 as a \u201cheat dome\u201d<\/a> has been engulfing much of the country.<\/p>\n Officials are warning beachgoers about the potential safety risks involved.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t understand how deadly the lightning is,\u201d Debra Crombie said of the beachgoers. Winknews<\/p>\n \u201cWe urge all residents, visitors, and beachgoers to monitor the weather prior to going outside. If you observe lightning in the immediate area: stay out of the water, seek immediate shelter, and stay clear of loose or tall objects that could pose a risk or injury,\u201d the Lee County Sher<\/a>i<\/a>ff\u2019s Office<\/a> wrote on X.<\/p>\n The Post has reached out to the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One person was killed and three others were injured when a group of Florida beachgoers was struck by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6104,5507,14088,28,30,29,76223,59486,85857,1186,9662,16190,1553,6977,32376,4278],"class_list":["post-329010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-beaches","tag-death","tag-extreme-weather","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-freak-accidents","tag-heatwave","tag-holidays","tag-lightning","tag-ocean","tag-swimming","tag-thunderstorms","tag-tragedy","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}