Lightning Strikes Harm 13

Nine people were injured—two critically, four seriously—by a lightning strike as they worked at a Colorado farm yesterday. Authorities say the workers weren't responding appropriately to questions, had weak muscles, and tingling or loss of feeling after the strike. And they weren't the week's only lightning-strike victims: A 65-year-old woman was struck by lightning near a trailhead in the state's Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday, and in Montana, two adults and a child were injured Wednesday after lightning struck near them as they hiked on a trail in Glacier National Park.

The three initially were unconscious and not breathing after the lightning strike. "Some bystanders performed CPR, which was a life-saving measure," a park rep said. They remain in serious condition. A nursing supervisor said the lightning didn't directly hit the hikers, so they weren't burned, but they did suffer effects from the noise and electrical field. (More lightning strike stories.)