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• A tragedy: Lightning strikes spread across 31 districts of two states killed 107 people on Thursday – 83 in Bihar and 24 in UP – amid warnings from meteorologists that more thunderstorms are on the radar over the next 72 hours. Both states announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to families of the deceased.
• The killer: Lightning strikes kill hundreds every year. In fact, among deaths due to exposure to severe weather, lightning strikes claimed almost 40% of lives between 2001 and 2014. Over 2,000 people have died in lightning strikes every year since 2005. In 2018, out of the 6,891 accidental deaths attributable to forces of nature, 2,357 or over 34% were due to lightning. That’s more than six deaths a day. That was close to those killed in floods (500), landslide (404), cold (757) and heat (890) combined. That probably makes lightning India’s biggest natural calamity.

• The policy: However, the natural disaster that kills the most isn’t recognised by India’s official disaster relief policy as one, which means victims, or their kin, are not entitled to financial compensation from the national calamity relief fund. However, some state governments have classified lightning as a disaster in order to pay compensation to victims and their families. That was after the Centre directed the state governments to allocate 10% of their disaster relief funds towards state-specific disasters.
• The warning: According to a 2014 University of Berkeley study, lightning strikes are expected to increase by 12% for every degree Celsius of warming, with a 50% rise in lightning expected by the end of the century.

Lightning Strike Sets 16 Oil Tanks

LOCKHART, TX – Sixteen oil tanks caught fire outside of Lockhart after a lightning strike hit early Wednesday morning, according to emergency personnel in the area.

Mid-County Fire and Rescue Department Chief Edward Hanna noted that when personnel arrived on scene in the 1200 block of Young Lane south of Lockhart, all sixteen oil tanks were ablaze. Hanna said the department contacted the National Weather Service for a lightning study and no one was injured in the fire.

Witness and KXAN viewer Paul Hodge called in the report around 7:16 a.m just after the blaze began.

Hanna said dispatch received the call at 7:18 a.m. Hodge said by 9 a.m. the fire had been knocked down and was mostly just smoke.

Local Meteorologist David Yeomans confirmed there was a lightning strike in that area just south of Young Lane southwest of Seawillow, Texas. This strike was just one of more than 6,000 lightning strikes in the area Wednesday morning as severe thunderstorms moved across the Lockhart area.

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Lockhart Oil Fire