2. And the SAGO COAL MINE DISASTER By Parisa Wootton

3. What is lightning? Lightning is a discharge of atmospheric electricity. It is triggered by a buildup of differing charges within a cloud.

4. Why is lightning dangerous? Lightning is dangerous because it can start forest fires. It kills at least 200 people in the United states a year. More people die from lightning than hurricanes or tornadoes.

5. Facts about lightning! Each second there are 50 to 100 lightning strikes world wide. Daytime lightning is hard to see in hazy weather and in local sun. Most lightning strikes are 2 to 3 miles long and carry a current of 10000 Amps at 100 million volts. Lightning “crawlers” or lets just say spider lightning can travel over 35 miles.

6. How to stay safe from lightning! Ditch the golf cart! Don’t lie down If you are in a group spread out with at least 20 feet between each person If you are in water get out! Stay away from tall trees Don’t wave you metal walking stick at the sky in rage! Don’t use your ipod

7. The Sago Coal mine In the early morning of January 2 nd 2006 in Sago, lightning struck at a Cole mine. It ignited an explosion inside the Cole mine. It was an unimaginable strike of misfortune. 13 miners were trapped 250 feet below ground. The rescue of these miners was delayed due to the lethal air quality inside the mine shaft due to the initial explosion. It took 36 hours for the first sign of the miners. This created an enormous wake of mourning in the community. This happened at approximately 6:30am

8. The Sago Coal mine This unfortunate event could have been prevented if the safety standards in the mine been better. The air had high levels of carbon monoxide and methane in it. The miners had an hour of oxygen in their safety tanks which they had to share. The rescue team dug holes in the ground and put video cameras and microphones to locate the miners unfortunately there was no sign of life. They also used a robot which was unsuccessful. They drilled a third hole but encountered ground water. This was all discouraging to the rescue efforts.

9. Miscommunication The company reported to the families that out of the 13 miners 12 were alive this report gave the families hope. But this was not true 1 only survived and the rest died due to lack of oxygen and the time taken to find them. The grief of the families was unimaginable as the search and rescue took 3 days.

10. The Sago coal mine Only one person survived and his name is Randal.McCloy he wrote a message to each of the victims families telling them that “about three weeks before the explosion, towards the end of our shift Junior Toller and I found a gas pocket while drilling a bolt hole in the mine roof. Our detector confirmed the presence of methane”.Had the company fixed the problems in the mine the explosion would not have happened.

11. Quiz time!!! What is two of the stay safe rules? Why is lightning dangerous? Tell me something about The Sago Cole mine What is lightning? Tell me one fact about the sago coal mine Tell me one fact about lightning