Lightning plan needed for children’s safety | Letters | March 25

Published 5:18 pm Thursday, March 24, 2011

Earlier this week, there was an NOAA severe weather alert in effect for thunder and potential funnel clouds.

After becoming aware of this, I contacted the head coaches of the Bainbridge Island boys lacrosse varsity team and the JV team, only to learn that they were not planning to cancel, delay or postpone practices that day.

Nor were they aware of said alert, nor did they have any reasonable facsimile of a “lightning plan,” if there were an immediate risk of lightning strikes while practice was under way.

The problem is that the Bainbridge Island boys lacrosse program and many other athletic program representatives may think they are better able to make sound decisions concerning player safety than NOAA, despite the fact that they might be ignoring or are uninformed about NOAA severe weather alert warnings in their area.

The fact is, and this may also be true for local school athletic programs and other club sport programs, is that there’s a lack of proper mandates and “lightning plans” that would otherwise ensure the safety and protection of our children in the event of a thunderstorm.

I hope we can help educate and raise people’s awareness in this regard, and hopefully save a few lives in the process.

For more information go to http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/outdoors.htm

John Greer

Bainbridge Island