Lightning Safety Planning for Live Productions
Lightning kills thousands of people across the globe every year. Lightning also arrives with thunder, which acts an audible alert system that warns of dangerous conditions outside. If thunder is heard, anyone outdoors is in danger of being struck by lightning. A common myth is that it must be raining for lightning to occur. In fact, many lightning fatalities occur when rain is not falling. When lightning threatens, immediate action is required to promote life safety.
Let’s examine a quick, eight-point outline of items to be included in any Lightning Safety Plan. Your plan may include more elements, but it is important that every lightning plan include specific people in the chain of command responsible for implementing and acting on the plan. Once you have your plan, follow it! Hoping the storm misses your location is not a plan.
The following items are from guidance provided by the National Weather Service (NWS), the Event Safety Alliance and the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security. At the forefront of protecting life and property, these organizations offer tremendous resources in developing any emergency plan.
An Eight-Point Plan
#1: Set an appropriate minimum safe lightning radius.
The current standard of care in lightning protection is to use an 8-mile radius as the safe zone. The 8-mile standard has been implemented by dozens of sports and entertainment organizations. The goal of every Lightning Safety Plan should be evacuating the outdoor event space before lightning reaches the 8-mile radius.
#2: Increase the minimum lightning radius, given factors such as audience size, crowd demographics/mobility, distance to available shelter, storm speed, etc.
In creating a suitable safe lightning radius for an outdoor venue, crowd size and the speed of the expected storm must be taken into account. Your Lightning Safety Plan should involve a professional meteorologist to determine a safe radius for each venue. Lightning Safety Plans should take into account how long it takes to move a large crowd to shelter in the face of a swift-moving lightning storm. Although the 8-mile radius is the minimum recommended, many outdoor venues in the U.S. now use a 10-mile radius to allow time to evacuate all patrons to safety.
#3: Identify vulnerable spaces where lightning poses a significant hazard to patrons, staff or entertainers.
There is no safe place outside when lightning is in the area. If you hear thunder, you are likely within striking distance of lightning. Don’t worry about the flash-to-bang time or counting in an attempt to determine distance. Quickly implementing your Lightning Safety Plan is a better use of time. Two slogans stand out for outreach purposes. “When You See It, Flee It” and “When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors!” Unsafe buildings include open garages, carports, covered patios, picnic shelters, beach pavilions, golf shelters, tents of any kind, baseball dugouts, sheds and partially enclosed vending areas. Unsafe vehicles include golf carts, construction equipment with open canopies, tractors, forklifts, bucket trucks or cherry pickers, convertibles, motorcycles or other open cab vehicles.
#4: Identify safe structures for lightning refuge.
Your Lightning Safety Plan should identify substantial lightning-safe structures and include specific evacuation instructions and maps. A lightning-safe structure is either a substantial building (one with plumbing and wiring, such as a home, school, church, office building, indoor concourse or recreation center) or an enclosed metal vehicle. Once inside, stay away from showers, sinks, bathtubs and electrical equipment such as radios connected to external antennas, corded telephones and computers. A safe vehicle is any fully enclosed metal-topped vehicle such as a hardtop car, minivan, bus, truck, etc. While inside a vehicle, do not open any windows and do not use electronic devices such as radios attached to external antennas or touch metal framing or fencing during a lightning storm.
#5: Designate a weather officer.
The weather officer will be assigned the role of reviewing the weather forecast and monitoring weather conditions before the event, preferably in conjunction with a professional meteorologist. The weather officer’s primary responsibility is to notify command staff of any weather threats and ensure the command staff has reviewed the Lightning Safety Plan. All command staff should be clearly identified in your plan. The weather officer should know how to access or make lightning forecasts, preferably with the assistance of a professional meteorologist. If available, web pages or mobile apps can be used to supplement weather information (radar, warnings) during the event. The weather officer’s main responsibilities are to keep eyes and ears to the sky, to be the liaison with a professional meteorologist or service and to communicate any weather threats to the command staff.
#6: Create pre-determined messages and communications protocols for notifying lightning risk and evacuation protocols.
Before the event begins, inform attendees a lightning threat exists and that protective action may be required that day. Provide instructions (scripts, graphics, maps, etc.) on protective measures to be taken in case of a lightning threat. During the event, notify attendees of any imminent threat and issue specific directions on taking protective action. After any lightning delay, issue an “all clear” notice when it’s safe to leave the lightning-safe structure or return to the event location.
Consider handing out lightning safety brochures or information sheets at the beginning of a season and/or at the day of an event and make heavy use of social media to announce the threat. Signs alone cannot satisfy the public notification recommendations, but can supplement your plan. When lightning is forecast for the day of the event, the weather officer and command staff should use any or all means to communicate the possibility of threatening weather to attendees and any safety precautions that will take place if needed. Methods of dissemination may include pre-written or pre-recorded public address announcements, video board messages, venue TV monitors, social media, text alerts, maps to shelters, etc.
#7: Designate an official-in-charge decision maker with the responsibility to postpone/cancel an event due to lightning.
A Lightning Safety Plan must include a chain of command. This should list all command staff personnel with decision-making authority to initiate lightning evacuation procedures. The command staff official-in-charge of the lightning decision will suspend the event and initiate protective measures for the staff and attendees upon recommendation from the weather officer or professional meteorologist or service. Complete evacuation from the event area should be considered if there are no lightning-safe structures available for everyone, or if the official-in-charge determines that a restart of the event will not be possible. Outdoor activity can resume after 30 minutes of lightning-free conditions within the 8-mile radius.
#8: Provide lightning safety and first aid training for all staff.
Educate the staff about lightning safety rules and the written Lightning Safety Plan. All staff should understand the Lightning Safety Plan before an event begins. Review the lightning procedures and rehearse if necessary.
Staying Safe
The eight points above briefly outline a Lightning Safety Plan. A complete, useful plan will have much more detail, and also be based on local knowledge of your venue and audience. The Event Safety Alliance is working to develop more detailed lightning safety guidance, but you can learn more about lightning and weather safety plans by attending the ESA’s annual Severe Weather Summit. Severe weather safety planning is also a topic at the upcoming Event Safety Summit in Lititz, PA, Nov. 29 through Dec. 1, 2016.
Dr. Kevin Kloesel chairs the weather advisory group for the Event Safety Alliance and provides forecasts and weather safety information before, during and after all types of weather threats on the University of Oklahoma Campus. For more information, visit the Event Safety Alliance at www.eventsafetyalliance.org.
A Few More Facts about Lightning
• All thunderstorms produce lightning and are potentially deadly. Severe thunderstorm warnings from the National Weather Service are not issued based on lightning. There is no NWS warning for lightning.
• Most victims survive a lightning strike; however immediate medical attention is required. Have someone call 911. Note that victims do not carry an electrical charge and can be touched. In many cases, the victim’s heart or breathing may stop and rescue breathing or CPR may be needed. If possible, move the victim to a safer place to avoid the threat of another strike. Work diligently to limit lightning exposure of first responders.
• Lightning can strike outside of the rain area. In extreme cases, “bolts from the blue” can strike 10 to 15 miles from the storm. Don’t wait for rain to begin to initiate the Lightning Safety Plan. Get to a safe structure, and don’t leave the structure just because the rain has let up.
• Many lightning casualties occur because people do not seek a safe structure soon enough. Don’t hesitate to stop the event and have patrons seek a lightning-safe structure if the sky appears threatening. Make sure venue personnel (ushers, etc.) know the Lightning Safety Plan.
• Only about 10 percent of people who are struck by lightning are killed, leaving 90 percent with various degrees of disability, including life-long debilitating injuries.
