Lufkin Restaurant Worker among Those Killed by Lightning in 2013

DALLAS — 2013 will go down as the least deadly year on record when it comes to lightning strikes, but not without taking a toll in our region. Two Texans were among 13 people nationally killed by lightning. They included an IHOP employee in Lufkin killed in May as she stood under an umbrella outside the restaurant. An 8-year-old San Antonio boy was struck and killed as he played in his back yard with two friends, who were both injured. San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood says, “In my seven years of being here, I can’t remember a lightning strike involving a child — and it’s one of those kind of surreal events.” Florida and Arizona each recorded four lightning deaths.