Waterloo student killed by lightning

(Update)
A young woman is dead after being struck by lightning at the University of Waterloo. The first year engineering student was hit while she was walking on campus.

The Waterloo fire rescue confirmed that at about 9 o’clock this morning, a first-year nano-technology engineering student, an 18-year old woman from Markham was walking back to her residence. That is when this sudden, violent storm hit this area, just over Kitchener/Waterloo. That is when this the fire rescue said that the women hid under the massive tree which was then struck by lightning. Bark was ripped off of the tree. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Her family has asked the authorities and the university to keep her identity private. There are 1,300 students staying at this residence. A lot of them don’t even know it’s happened and the story is spreading by word of mouth and a lot of them don’t want to say much because it is a sensitive subject.

The President of the university of Waterloo as well as some of his colleagues talked about the overall sadness that had been felt here on campus as well as the severity and abruptness of the storm.

Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor: “Orientation week is a time when campus is especially vibrant and filled with optimism for the future — which makes this students death even more distressing. And her passing a source of immense grief”

Chris Read, Associate provost students: “We were expecting rain later in the day. And at this time of year we do monitor these types of things just because of orientation activities. In this particular situation the storm came on very fast. For those that were in the area, they know how fast the storm came on.

Many students did talk with CHCH earlier today and they did talk about the severity of the storm and what a rarity it is that one of their own was killed after being struck by lightning.

“It was a pretty bad thunderstorm. It was pretty loud. I could hear it from my room. It lasted about a half-hour. I was at the gym. It got struck a couple of times. Like the building got hit by lightning a few times because the power went out and then it went back on. It was like pretty loud.”

“It could have been me actually. I was walking back from the SLC (Student Life Centre). We had to walk there for orientation. That’s when there was thunder, scary. I’ve heard stories like this but didn’t know it could actually lead to death.”

“They’re pretty sad. Happened all of a sudden. It’s the first week of classes, not even classes, it’s frosh week right now. Pretty sad yeah.”

The university has confirmed that none of the building were struck by lightning. While they talk about how this storm was unexpected, the Kitchener-Waterloo area is under a severe thunderstorm watch.

The local fire department issued some statements and they talked about one of the last place you want to be during a thunderstorm is under a tree

If going inside is not an option, you want to be in a well built and confined area like a garage. And if you don’t have any options, you want to crouch down and make yourself as small a possible with only your feed touching the ground. You do not want to lay flat — that will increase the possible area in which you can be struck.

The president of the school said that the number one priority is to counsel those students that might have been affected by the abrupt death of one of their own, and after that they will revisit their lightning safety protocol.