A woman dies from a lightning strike in Cuba

Havana, Cuba.– A 42-year-old woman died on Friday afternoon after receiving an electric shock caused by lightning, in what would be the fourth victim for this cause in less than a week in Cuba, official media reported this Saturday. The event occurred in the town of Colón in the Cuban province of Matanzas (west) when the victim was performing agricultural work, detailed the local newspaper Girón on social media. Last Sunday, three teenagers died and another was injured after being struck by lightning during an electrical storm in Manicaragua (center). This type of event occurs especially in July and August, due to the storms typical of summer. According to a 2020 study by the Institute of Meteorology, the annual average is 54 deaths from lightning strikes.

You can read: Three teenagers killed by lightning strike in central Cuba

According to that record, between 1987 and 2017 a total of 1,742 people died from being struck by lightning, a figure that far exceeds the number of human losses left by hurricanes, tornadoes, intense rainfall events and coastal floods and other natural disasters on the island.