European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 30, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday june 30, t996 the stars and stripes Pago 7 Sunshine state is also lightning state Cox news service Orlando Fin. Nearly every Day in the summertime there s e rumble on thunderstorm Alley. Temperature Rise. Breezes from the Gulf of Mexico clash with breezes from the Atlantic. And a sunny Belt of Florida from Llie Casl to the West coasts is trans formed into a Battleground of weather forces that makes it one of the most lightning prone corridors in the country. Florida leads the nation in lightning deaths with259 people killed Between 1959 and 19bs, an average of almost 10 � year. In the same period 699 people survived direct strikes. North Carolina in the second spot averages nearly five deaths by lightning a year with us people killed Over the 26-year Span. Georgia had 62 fatalities in the same period. The Peninsula promoted As the Sunshine stale i alive with thunderstorms for More Days and More hours than any other place in the country according to Donald Macgorman a physicist with the National severe storms Laboratory in Oklahoma. Orlando has been called the lightning capital of i reunited slate but Tampa and port Myers probably could compete for the title says Hank Vigansky meteorological technician with the National weather service s climatic data Center All three cities average somewhere Between 100 and 130 thunderstorms year the highest in the nation. Nearly half the Florida lightning victims were killed somewhere along thunderstorm Alley nicknamed by scientists who study lightning activity Here. The area stretches from fort Myers and Clear water on the Gulf of Mexico across Orlando to the Cape canaveral Vicinity on the Atlantic. Already this summer lightning has claimed at Leasi two victims in Florida one in Orlando and one near Cape canaveral. Lightning kills mostly Between june and August and the greatest number of victims in Florida arc hit while standing in open Fields or fishing boating or swimming. There s no telling How Many animals die by Light Ning strikes each year. Florida Farmers and weather experts agree cows Are the hardest hit because their Clannish nature sends them huddling together beneath Trees during storms. The entire huddle can be killed i lightning strikes. If you could Leach the cows to sit up on their Hind tags they d be in a much better position says Bill Jafferis an Engineer who s researching the lightning phenomenon at a Kennedy space Center research facility dubbed fort lightning. The Roar beyond the Flash of lightning a Angle Thunderclap reaches your ears All at once because the explosion arched overhead All of it about the same distance away. The Thunderbolt roars Toften lightning has struck nearby. First you hear the noise Between you and the place struck a in Section of a Secott snap or cock followed by Iho noise ram he lightning itself costly up 10 3 seconds Long. Time of silence before first your ears How far away is it the number of seconds Between lightning s Flash end the crash of in under divided by 5 gives the approximate distance in Miles. Jafferis and a team of lightning investigators som of them French specialists who have perfected the technique of triggering lightning arc launching tiny rockets from Cape canaveral equipped with a 2,200 foot Tail of Copper wire designed to attract lightning. Florida s geographical features with the Gulf of Mexico on one Side the Atlantic Ocean on Lite other and Rivere and swamps in Between All tend to create a natural environment for thunderstorms to form Jafferis says. Many folks who spend a lot of time outdoors have no idea what to do if threatened by lightning he said. For instance if you feel your hair being raised on end during an electrical storm it s a Good idea to drop to your Knees Bend Forward and put your hands on your Knees immediately. A witness who saw a victim gel struck described a Streamer of Light coming out of he top of Bis head forming an arc. If people arc in an open Field or in a Rowboat stand ing up they become a High target. They enhance the electrical Field and streamers of electrons Start coming out of their head Jafferis said. A strike disrupts the body s electrical system and the heart is unable to pump. Or in bums through and sometimes explodes pans of the body Macgorman says. The fort lightning researchers soon Hope to Beable to accurately predict thunderstorms. Though the number of lightning deaths nationwide has tapered off slightly in the last decade because of greater Public awareness there probably will always be victims Jafferis said. But with recent research in aircraft and ground lightning Protection systems he is optimistic. We willbe very successful in coping with these problems he said. Distributed by a a York to Kim twi str Toa Reagan opposes vets1 lawsuits Over nuke tests Washington a the Reagan administration has told Congress it opposes a proposed Law that would permit new suits to be filed by military veterans who say they got cancer because they took pan in the testing of atomic weapons. The opposition was voiced Friday at a judiciary cot Viltee hearing on a Bill by rep. Frederick Boucher d-va., thai would repeal a 2-year-old Law limiting the ability of those Veteran to sue. Boucher s Bill won the support Al the hearing of the National association of atomic veterans a private group of for Mer military personnel who say they were injured daring the tests in the late 1940s and Early 1950s, two Yean ago Congress repealed a provision of Federal Law that permitted the veterans to sue contractors which in these cases were the Federal laboratories that oversaw the weapons tests. Instead the 1984 Law provided that the veterans should sue the Federal government itself. However Boucher noted that it is extremely difficult for the veterans to successfully file a suit because Federal courts have generally held that veterans cannot sue the government for injuries sustained while they were on Active duly. Thus said Boucher the 1984 Amend ment denied the atomic veterans their right to a Day in court the Justice department opposed his Bill Friday. Assistant attorney Genera Richard Willard it would set an unacceptable precedent that would inevitably be extended into other areas of Liti creating a class of litigants who would get special treatment said Willard Means it would be difficult to deny other litigants similar treatment and very difficult to deny them the same tile dispute arises from the govern ment s weapons letting program after world War ii thousands of military personnel look part in those tests and Many of the veterans say they now have health problems including cancer As re sult. The Federal government has generally disputed those contentions. Willard argued again Friday that there is no conclusive evidence linking the veterans role in the atomic tests to any of their health problems. Robert Faron an attorney represent ing the National association of atomic veterans told the panel his group sup ported the Bill. Jusi As a commander must take responsibility for the Well being of his men said Faron the . Must accept the responsibility for its servicemen who were asked to respond to their duly in this Case As experimental witnesses of the effects of atomic weather info blamed in Delta crash Dallas up Federal investigators say misinterpretation of weather conditions by the Crew was partially responsible for the crush of Delta flight 191 that killed 137 people at Dallas for Worth International Airport last August the Dallas times Herald said in a copy Crew s failure to abort the Landing earlier and inadequate stalling procedures a weather facilities serving the Airport. The report concludes nearly ii months of technical examination of the aug. 1 crash. The l-101 jumbo Jet a route from fort Lauderdale fla., to los Angeles with an intermediate Stop i Dallas met violent wind shifts in a storm eel across its Landing path and crashed a mile Short of the runway. Bill Bush an Nosb spokesman con firmed the report was submitted but declined comment on it. The times Herald said in Learned the report s contents from sources close to the investigation. The analysis which Bush said rep resents a compilation of All the evidence and an analysis of All the facts May become the Board s final report Bui still is open to change. The Board can raise objections or re quest changes in the document before malting Public in final determination of probable cause at a meeting july is although air traffic controllers failed to warn the Crew of the storm other than noting the presence of a rain Shower Nosb investigators did not blame them. They cited the separation of air planes not weather monitoring As the controllers main responsibility the sources told the times Herald. Doug Twinan a Delia Captain who was the airline s chief investigator for the crash said if the Board s final report blames Pilot error the airline will Proba Bly ask for a reconsideration. All can say is that Delta air lines has clearly Laid out its position in our Brief to the Board be said. In thai report on the airline sown investigation Delta officials concluded Itiat once inside the storm the Crew did everything it could to save the jumbo Jet. The airline said no aircraft could have mane Vered through the violent rapidly shifting winds. Delta capt. Dick Stone a member of the air line pills association s nation Al Accident investigation Board said he had not seen the report but was aware some Nosb experts have criticized flight 191 screw Many people believe that the Pilot always has the last Chance of saving the air plane Stone said. He said the Pilot s judgment was hampered by Lade of weather information
