Lightning Strikes Twice in Colorado National Park - East Idaho News
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Lightning Strikes Twice in Colorado National Park

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Thinkstock 071314 LightningStrike?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1405258851349iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DENVER) — A lightning strike left one dead and three others injured Saturday at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, just one day after another strike left a woman dead and seven other people injured, a park spokeswoman said.

The incident happened at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday in the Rainbow Curve area along the park’s heavily traveled Trail Ridge Road, according to Rocky Mountain National Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson.

When park rangers arrived, they found four injured people. They were taken to Estes Park Medical Center by ambulance, but one man died of his injuries, Patterson said.

On Friday afternoon, a woman was killed by lightning in the same general area of the park.

An air ambulance was able to land between cycles of severe weather but the woman died on scene. She has been identified as Rebecca R. Teilhet, 42, from Yellow Springs, Ohio. She was hiking with her husband and a friend.

Seven other people suffered a variety of injuries and went to a hospital for treatment, Patterson said.

The lightning-strike death Friday was the first in Colorado this year, and after the second fatality there Saturday there have been a total of 11 nationwide in 2014, according to the National Weather Service.

Last week near Denver, a man was recording a lightning storm from what he thought was the safety of his garage when a bolt struck nearby.

On average, 51 people in the U.S. are killed by lightning annually, the National Weather Service says. The agency publishes tips for keeping safe during a lightning storm.

 


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