Lightning strike kills Huron County woman
Mon, August 10, 2009
By KATE DUBINSKI, LONDON FREE PRESS
A walk on the beach with a friend turned tragic Sunday night as severe thunderstorms struck the region, killing a Huron County woman who was struck by lightning while trying to find shelter from the storm.
Despite the efforts of a bystander who was already performing CPR when paramedics arrived, the woman, identified by police as Virginia Baldwin, 49, from the St. Joseph?s, didn?t survive her injuries.
An autopsy revealed Baldwin likely died of a heart attack as a result of being struck by lighting.
The incident happened on the beach on the west side of Port Franks, a small community in Lambton County, just before 9 p.m.
The woman and a man had been in the water in a dingy when the storm began.
They got out and turned the dingy over for shelter and, along with a dog, started walking towards the parking lot.
?The lightning struck and blew apart the rubber dingy,? said Ron Huxley, the fire chief of the Northville Volunteer Fire department, one of several emergency crews that were called to the scene.
The woman was unconscious and not breathing, Huxley said. The man was knocked out but later came to.
A bystander on the beach performed CPR on the woman until paramedics arrived, but the woman never regained consciousness.
?The power that comes from a lightning strike is unbelievable. You could be standing 100 feet away from a strike and still feel it,? said Huxley.
The dog was also killed in the incident.
Weather at Port Franks is often ferocious and comes on suddenly off Lake Huron, Huxley and other residents said.
?We get considerable weather because of the dune structure, which comes off the lake and causes all kinds of funny weather,? he said.
John McClennan, who owns the Port Franks Marina, said people have been talking about Sunday?s storm and the viciousness with which it hit the community.
?People here thought we were being hit by a tornado,? McClennan said.
?It was just horrendous. It came in two shots, two different storms, and things were just tipping and flying all over the place.?
In Parkhill, where McClennan lives, the storm was the worst he?d seen, McClennan said.
The woman has not been identified until family members can be notified.
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