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SALINA, Sevier County — All but one of the teens hospitalized after a lightning strike have been sent home, according to the Sevier County Sheriff's Office.
In a message to KSL-TV, Sheriff Nathan Curtis confirmed all but one of the teens was released from the hospital. A young woman remained at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City for an MRI and follow-up testing.
In total, some 50 teens were shocked by a lightning bolt in eastern Sevier County on Thursday during a church trek hiking activity.
According to Curtis, seven teens were hospitalized with two flown to hospitals in northern Utah. KSL-TV confirmed one of the teens was flown to Primary Children's Hospital Miller Family Campus in Lehi, and the other to the Salt Lake City campus.
According to a press release from the sheriff's office, the teens escaped life-threatening injuries and no serious burns were reported.
"I think I've had so much adrenaline just because I want to be the mom of the group and make sure everyone's OK, but now as we've had a few hours to decompress, we're just feeling more and more," Alyssa Rosquist, 17, said in an interview with KSL-TV Thursday evening. "But also I'm at least feeling super lucky."
And luck may have been on their side. It appeared no one was directly struck by the lightning bolt.
The Salt Lake office of the National Weather Service was closely tracking the powerful thunderstorm on Thursday.
Considering the powerful charge of a lightning bolt at 300 million watts and 30,000 amps, they were concerned about the youth involved in the incident but not surprised.
David Church, science and operations officer at the Salt Lake City Weather Service Forecast Office, said lightning-related injuries in Utah are not uncommon.
"Utah is, per capita, in the top 10 in the country for lightning deaths per year. It goes to show, I think, a lot of the intersection between being outside in the outdoors," Church said. "These thunderstorms that bubble up every afternoon in the summer in the mountains, where we want to recreate."
The last death in Utah from lightning was in 2016 the latest reported injury was in 2021.
When it comes to lightning, Church said it's powerful and highly unpredictable. While metal and water don't attract electricity, they are conductors. The lightning's electrical charge likely traveled through the water on the ground and shocked the teens.
"Lightning is always looking for the path of least resistance to the ground," Church said. "That's a very chaotic, kind of random process, we don't know where a lightning strike is going to occur."
As everyone tries to understand the physics of what the teens experienced, they're relieved everyone survived.
"I think it was definitely a big blessing," Rosquist said.
According to Church, there is, unfortunately, very little that can be done to protect oneself from lightning once outdoors. The best option is to find shelter or a hard-topped vehicle.
