美國加州遭罕見雷電襲擊 1死13傷

Angelica Roquemore made the long drive from Bakersfield to Venice Beach on Sunday, planning to frolic in the waves with relatives during her first visit to the famed beach town's white sand and eclectic shops.
安傑麗卡·若克莫週日從貝克爾斯菲驅車前往威尼斯海灘與家人一起遊玩，這是她第一次來到這座以白沙與雜貨店聞名的海濱小鎮。

But in an instant, the day at the beach turned into a scene of panic when a perfect storm of rare weather sent lightning bolts and booming thunder from a darkened sky.
但海灘上，天色突然暗了下來，一場罕見的雷暴雨突襲而至，天空一片電閃雷鳴，沙灘上人們驚慌四散。

The midafternoon lightning strikes killed a 20-year-old man who was pulled from the water and injured at least seven others — one of them critically. The 15-minute thunderstorm struck as more than 20,000 people were visiting the southern portion of Venice Beach, where the lightning hit, sending beach-goers scrambling for cover and nearly six dozen rescue workers into action.
下午三時左右，一名在水中的20歲年輕人被閃電擊中身亡，閃電還至少擊傷了另外7名遊客，其中一名傷勢嚴重。暴雨持續了15分鐘，威尼斯海灘南部有2萬多名遊客受災，遊客們爭相尋找遮蔽物，約有120名救援人員趕往現場。

"My hair was standing up," Roquemore said. "You could hear everybody screaming."
若克莫說，“我的頭髮都豎起來了。你可以聽到，每個人都在尖叫。”

Climatologist Bill Patzert said the lightning strikes that hit the Southern California coast Sunday from San Diego to Venice are extremely rare. The West Coast has the lowest incidence of lightning strikes in the nation; the odds of being hit are 1 in 7.5 million in California compared to 1 in 600,000 in Florida, the nation's "lightning champion," he said.
氣候學家比爾·帕澤特表示，週日加州南部聖地亞哥到威尼斯一帶的海灘受到雷擊，這一現象十分罕見。西海岸受雷擊的機率僅爲750萬分之一，爲全美最低；佛羅里達州則爲60萬分之一，是美國的“閃電冠軍”。

Witnesses said the thunder and lightning were so explosive that it shook homes, triggered car alarms and set dogs barking. Some said they saw lightning as far away as Los Angeles International Airport about 30 minutes before the thunderclaps in Venice. Others said they had no warning at all.
目擊者稱，當時雷電特別厲害，房子都在搖晃，汽車報警器和狗都在叫。一些人說，雷暴雨突襲威尼斯之前30分鐘曾在洛杉磯國際機場看見閃電。另一些人則說，雷暴雨來之前一點預兆也沒有。