Grounding Fears Over Lightning

This is earthquake land, mudslide central, El Nino territory. Even for young Southern California kids, the Richter scale is part of the lexicon and collective disaster consciousness.

But who said anything about the sky falling in fits of thunder and lightning? What do parents say about the improbable thunderstorms that sparked brush fires in Orange County and other regions this week?

Unless you grew up back East, your expectations about the forces of nature are likely to be blown away, mental health experts say. And disaster officials worry that children--not to mention parents--don’t know even the most basic safety precautions.

Thunderstorms tap into our most primal fears of the unknown, said Lisa T. Mori, an associate professor of psychology at Cal State Fullerton. Look at the way thunderstorms take on mythic proportions in disaster movies and the Bible, which in Revelations describes the Apocalypse with “voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”

“When we think of thunderstorms or lightning or pouring rain, we often associate it with where else we’ve heard about it,” especially in Southern California, where people often have no other frame of reference, Mori said. “It’s often in the context of Armageddon or a terrible, terrible event that has befallen mankind.”

Yet unfamiliarity also can breed a lack of respect for lightning’s dangers. A couple of years ago, Huntington Beach lifeguard Matt Norton had to beg swimmers and surfers to get out of the water. A rare thunderstorm was on its way, but hardly anyone understood that they were at risk because lightning tends to strike the highest point. In a field as flat as water, that could be a surfboard or a swimmer’s arm.

“They were like, ‘Oh, that’s not going to happen,’ ” Norton said. “It’s kind of weird, because there was such an electric field around that people were feeling like a buzz. People said they felt their hair was standing on edge.”

Ten years ago, a girls softball team and coach did what seemed the obvious solution when an electrical storm struck. The Tustin Bobby Sox team huddled under an oak tree to escape the rain--another lightning no-no. All nine were injured when lightning struck the tree, the tallest object around. Most of them were burned; three of the girls temporarily stopped breathing.

In the Plains states and others accustomed to severe weather, kids learn early about what to do when lightning threatens, just as Southern California children automatically duck under a desk in an earthquake, said Bill Hoffer, a meteorological technician for the National Weather Service. But this week, local weather service officials are fielding calls from residents throughout Southern California who want to know how to keep safe in thunderstorms.

With more thunderstorms predicted for this weekend, experts recommended that parents try to help children make sense of the strange turn of events.

They can start by being ready for questions, said child psychologist Merritt Schreiber, chair of the Disaster Mental Health Team for the American Red Cross in Orange County.

The unexpected weather “creates an expectation of uncertainty in the world . . . [about] forces out of our control. The first step is that parents need to have a disaster plan. They need to create a protective barrier between the world and child,” Schreiber said. (Red Cross officials will mail a disaster preparedness brochure to anyone who sends a stamped, self-addressed envelope to P.O. Box 11364, Santa Ana, CA 92711-1364; or call (714) 835-5381, Ext. 233.)

Others suggested that parents sit down with children before the storm rolls in and let them know that it’s OK to be scared.

“The lightning lights up the sky, and the thunder rolls in, and sometimes seem to shake the whole house. Certainly, the violence is very fearful,” said psychologist Dennis Kreil of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School district.

In Foothill Ranch, the lightning last week so scared 5-year-old Katrina Lugo that she threw up, said her mother, Delia Lugo. And that was before the family evacuated because of the Santiago Canyon fire that came within striking distance.

It’s hard to prepare kids when lightning strikes without notice, said Pamela Miller, a child and family psychologist with Health Psychology Associates in Irvine.

“Children really thrive on predictability,” she said. “When you have any sort of changes in the weather, such as fire and storms, their sense of being able to predict the future is disrupted. That causes a lot of fear in a child. They feel out of control.”

She suggested that parents help small children draw pictures of thunder and lightning, or read picture books with them that explain how weather works.

In a storm, lightning occurs from a buildup and discharge of electrical energy in the sky; thunder booms when the rapid heating and cooling of air near the lightning channel cause a shock wave. But parents don’t have to understand the precise scientific process of lightning to talk about it, said Roberta Berns, a professor of development psychology at Saddleback College. They can use everyday words to take the mystery out of weather, she said. For instance: “It’s the cold air bumping into the hot air, and it makes noise. Remember when the chair fell over, and it made a big noise?” “The lightning is like sparks on the Fourth of July.”

Most important, Berns said, when a storm is coming, parents should reassure their children that they will not be alone.

“One of their fears is of being abandoned,” she said. “That’s a fear of a child who fears the unknown.”

Times correspondent Jason Kandel contributed to this report.

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Anatomy of a Lightning Strike

Lightning flashes when electricity travels between positive and negative charges in and around a cloud. Lightning strikes can take place within a cloud, from cloud to cloud or from a cloud to the ground. Here’s how it happens:

How Lightning Form

Negative charge at top of cloud

Positive charge high in cloud

Strong area of negative charge

Positive charge at bottom of cloud

Positive charge on ground

What Makes Thunder Roar

A thunderclap is a lightning flash turning into heat and then into sound waves. How it works:

1. Lightning heats, expands, air

2. Air cools, then contracts

3. Quick expansion and contraction creates sound waves.

Staying Safe in a Thunderstorm

* Never take shelter under a tree.

* Stay in your car. The tires will ground the vehicle if struck by lightning.

* Get out of he shower or bathtub.

* Hang up the phone and turn off electrical appliances, including the television.

Where Is the Storm?

We see lightning instantly, but the sound of thunder takes a few seconds to reach us. Sound travels a mile in five seconds. To figure out how far away a storm is, start counting when you see a lightning strike. At five seconds the lightning is a mile away, at 10 seconds it’s two miles away and so on.

Source: USA Today Weather Book