A Colorado man who was on his honeymoon in Central Florida was killed after being struck by lightning at New Smyrna Beach on Friday in what may have been the state’s first lightning fatality this year, the authorities said.
The man, Jake Rosencranz, 29, of Denver, was struck shortly before 12:30 p.m. as he stood in ankle-deep water, according to officials from the Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue and the Volusia County Medical Examiner Office. New Smyrna is on the Atlantic coastline, just south of Daytona Beach, Fla.
Emergency crews attempted to save Mr. Rosencranz, performing CPR and other measures, said Tamra Malphurs, a spokeswoman for the Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue.
Mr. Rosencranz was unresponsive when he transported from the scene “and he sadly lost his life from the injuries he sustained,” she added.
The Volusia County Medical Examiner Office was performing an autopsy, according to Karla Orozco, the office’s operations manager. The office has not released an official cause of death.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood of Volusia County said in a Facebook post that the man was vacationing with his wife in New Smyrna Beach.
“They were visiting our beaches to celebrate their marriage,” Sheriff Chitwood said. “In one terrifying second everything changed.”
Mr. Rosencranz was not the only person hit by lightning that day in the area.
Emergency crews responded at about 12:18 p.m. to a report of two golfers “who were indirectly struck by lightning” while playing at the Club at Venetian Bay, a golf-course community about seven miles inland from the New Smyrna Beach’s shore, according to Ava Hanner, a city spokeswoman.
Responders from the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department evaluated the golfers, but they did not need to be taken to a hospital for treatment. “We are grateful that there were no serious injuries in this incident,” Ms. Hanner added.
She said that the episode serves an important reminder to residents and visitors of the dangers posed by lightning storms, even when it’s not raining, advising people to seek shelter in a fully enclosed building or hard-topped vehicle. “If you can hear thunder, you’re close enough to be struck by lightning, even if the sky looks clear,” she said.
Each year, lightning has killed about 20 people on average across the country and injured many others over the last decade, according to the National Weather Service. At least four people have been killed by lightning strikes this year, according to the service and the National Lightning Safety Council, which tracks such trends.
Lightning, though, is not unusual in Florida, which has been described as the lightning capital of the country by the Weather Service. The Florida Department of Health said that the state averages about 1.2 million lightning strikes each year.
Florida’s propensity for lightning strikes stems from the state’s topography as a peninsula and its mix of heat, humidity and sea breezes on both its Gulf and Atlantic coasts, which produce roaring thunderstorms.