Northeast Lightning Strikes Leave 3 Dead, 1 Hurt

Fierce storms that rattled the Northeast killed three men who were hit by lightning, and left thousands of residents without power.

Nathan Maddox, 25, was killed Friday night as he watched the storm from a downtown rooftop with friends, police said. In Pennsylvania, Matthew Tresca, 16, of Clifton, N.J., was killed by lightning at a Boy Scout camp.

And in Maryland, Michael Paul Palmer, 55, was struck by lightning Saturday at his home and was killed. A 17-year-old boy was injured by lightning while at a swimming pool.

Lightning hit the ground an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 times across the New York metropolitan area in a three-hour span Friday during a storm that deposited more than an inch of rain, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jeffrey Tongue.

In Putnam County, N.Y., about 10,000 homes were without electricity after the storms, said Robert Bondi, a Putnam County official. He declared a limited state of emergency as utility crews across the state were called in to help repair downed utility lines and snapped poles.

About 2,000 homes in the county remained without power late Saturday.

There were 31,000 outages in New York City’s five boroughs and Westchester County, with all but about 9,000 restored Saturday, said Consolidated Edison spokeswoman D. Joy Faber.

In New Jersey, automatic safety sensors shut down a cable car ride as the storm approached Six Flags Great Adventure at Jackson, stranding 23 people, park spokeswoman Kristin Kocher said.

It took about an hour to get all the riders down from the cars, Kocher said. No one was injured.