Bay Area's Lightning Curse Strikes Again

By STEPHEN THOMPSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 21, 2007

TREASURE ISLAND - In the words of one witness, lightning was "shattering all across the beach" in heavy rain. As many as six bolts crashed through the sky in quick succession Friday.

One struck Sam Machajewski, a 16-year-old Tampa boy who was with his mother, officials said.

Maureen Machajewski, 46, visiting from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, became hysterical, said passers-by who rushed to the family's aid and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the youth in the sand. The bolt had hit him in the chest, knocking him unconscious and shredding his shorts, they said.

Eighty-six minutes later, in a Sam's Club parking lot in Brandon 30 miles away, Jonathan Farmer was on the verge of opening the door to his Honda Ridgeline as a thick, black cloud loomed overhead. A bolt hit the pickup, sending a shot of electricity through Farmer's keys and his left thumb before exiting through the rubber sole of his left shoe.

The 51-year-old Apollo Beach man was knocked to the ground, but unlike Machajewski he was conscious and breathing on his own.

As they do every summer in Florida, fast-moving thunderstorms had spit out violent and unpredictable spikes of lightning, according to the National Weather Service in Ruskin. The same weather is expected today and Sunday in the Tampa Bay area.

"This is a stark reminder of what so many do not know, ... that not only is Florida the lightning capital of the U.S., but lightning strikes this time of year in Central Florida more than anywhere else - about 50 times within each square mile," said Jeff Jensen, a spokesman for Treasure Island.

"Unfortunately, for lightning, there is no warning to be issued," said Anthony Reynes, a meteorologist with the weather service. Lightning can strike as far as 10 miles from where it is raining, according to the weather service Web site.

In Treasure Island on Friday, rain had been falling for roughly 10 minutes. It also was thundering, but some people remained on the municipal beach on Gulf Boulevard where Machajewski was struck at 10:34 a.m., city officials said.

Georgia Hewitt, a visitor from Tennessee who learned CPR as a gymnastics instructor, saw someone working on Sam Machajewski. She ran down from her sixth-story unit at the Surf Beach Resort next door.

While one woman did chest compressions on the boy, Hewitt said, she performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on him, and the two continued their efforts until paramedics arrived.

"By the time I had gotten there, he had, as far as I understand, he had not been breathing for at least a minute and a half," Hewitt said.

Machajewski was taken to Palms of Pasadena Hospital in South Pasadena, then to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg. The family asked hospital staff not to release information on the teen.

At the beach, Maureen Machajewski complained of a pain in her ankles, numbness in her feet and radiating pain reaching into her chest, Hewitt said. Hewitt speculated she had not been hit by lightning directly but was close enough to receive a jolt of electricity.

Machajewski was at Palms of Pasadena Hospital Friday afternoon, but a hospital spokeswoman would not release her condition.

Later, in Brandon, Farmer and his wife, Sandy, noticed the cloud as they were leaving Sam's Club, where they had gone to buy toilet paper and paper towels for the three UPS stores they own, Sandy Farmer said.

Sandy Farmer decided to wait under the store's overhang and let her husband fetch the truck. Moments later, she heard a loud boom. After waiting 15 minutes, she called his cell phone.

"I said, 'Where are you?' and he said, 'I think I've been hit by lightning,'" she said.

"He said it was like being hit by a linebacker."

Farmer was in serious condition at Tampa General Hospital. David Shapiro, a physician with the hospital's trauma unit, said he doubted Farmer would suffer long-term effects.

A few hours after the strike, Farmer could sit up and talk. He was suffering from sore muscles and a bad headache, his clothes smelled like smoke, and his left thumb has a black, scorched hole the size of a dime, Sandy Farmer said.

"He's very lucky," Shapiro said.

Tribune reporters Lindsay Wilkes-Edrington and Mike Wells and News Channel 8 reporter Rod Challenger contributed to this report. Tribune reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

SAFETY TIPS

•Watch for developing thunderstorms.

•Seek shelter indoors. If you can hear thunder, you are within striking distance.

•While indoors, avoid water, doors, windows, corded phones, computers and other electrical equipment. Lightning can strike exterior electric lines, sending a surge through equipment inside.

•If outdoors, avoid trees, high ground, open spaces, metal objects.

•If a person is struck by lightning, call 911 immediately and use cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Victims do not carry an electrical charge and can be handled safely.