By Mabinty Kamara
Three people were struck by lightening in Mile 91 on Tuesday and died instantly, amid a heavy thunderstorm.
Three others were left in a state of comatose but are said to have recovered.
The three killed were a 14-year-old JSS 1 pupil who was washing her clothes, a 24-year-old who was passing by from fetching water with yellow jerrycans.
The incident happened in the same compound.
Among those who went into coma was a one-year-old boy, according to a police source.
Local Unit Commander of Mile 91, Superintendent Peter Rogers said the incident occurred during an unusual heavy downpour on Tuesday which he said was accompanied by a strong wind blowing from all directions.
Superintendent Rogers told Politico that the severity of the wind was such that it smashed part of a house in the town. He said the deceased had been buried after traditional rites were performed on their remains.
The storm affected Freetown and Makeni.
Thunderstorm is a storm with thunder and lightning and it typically comes along with heavy rains. The lightening, which apparently caused their deaths, is a sudden electrostatic discharge during an electrical storm between electrically charged regions of a cloud.
Thunderstorms are common occurrences on earth. It is estimated that a lightning strike hits somewhere on the earth's surface approximately 44 times every second, a total of nearly 1.4 billion lightning strikes every year, according to the UK’s National Weather Service.
Owing to the fact that thunderstorms are created by intense heating of the earth's surface, they are most common in areas of the globe where the weather is hot and humid like in Sierra Leone.
In Sierra Leone death related to lightening or thunderstorm is normally associated with superstition.
But Superintendent Rogers insists Tuesday’s incident was undoubtedly natural.
“The cause of this particular incident is natural as there was a heavy storm accompanied by lightening.”
He observed that if the effected compound had trees it would have landed on them and possibly prevented the human casualties.
Rogers noted however that the incident was unusual in that even though the rains had fallen seldom in April, it was accompanied by this magnitude of wind.
“It cannot be unconnected to climate change. So people must stop cutting trees without replacement for the greater good of the environment,” he advised.
He also encouraged people to plant trees in their compounds to prevent future reoccurrence.
The Mile 91 incident has raised a number of concerns among Sierra Leoneans as to what would become of the country during the raining season, especially in October when thunderstorms are common.
Superintendent Rogers commended the people of Mile 91 for having trust in the police as the police was their first place of contact when the incident happened.
(C) Politico 14/04/16
