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Teen Killed, Eleven Injured In Lightning Strike

November 15, 2005

A 15-year-old boy died and up to a dozen others were injured after lightning from a brief thunderstorm struck without warning during a junior varsity football game at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek. Witnesses described a big flash of lightning about 5:30 p.m. followed by a second bolt that knocked about 13 people to the ground.

Schaffner Noel, 15, of Coconut Creek, was pronounced dead shortly after he was taken to Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, said Coconut Creek police spokeswoman Judie Banks. Wagner Noel said the last time he saw his brother 'Shaff,' rescue workers were loading his prone body onto a gurney. 'One of my friends at the hospital said the lighting strike went through his heart,' Wagner Noel said, his voiced choked with emotion. 'We were real close. It was just two of us. There's not going to be no other one. It's going to be messed up.'

The game between the junior varsity squads of Monarch and Pompano Beach high schools was called off with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter when the first clap of thunder sounded, according to police and witnesses. A second lightning bolt struck moments later on the south end of the field, hitting Schaffner Noel in the chest and knocking him unconscious. 'He [went] down, but he was standing very close to two other kids. All three went down,' Banks said.

Rescue workers moved 10 people to the school gym for treatment, in addition to the three injured football players, according to police. A police officer and two coaches also were knocked down, witnesses said. No Pompano Beach High players were affected by the lightning strike. 'These storms roll in very quickly. This is South Florida, and it's very difficult to predict weather,' said Banks. 'I think everybody was stunned and shocked at what happened.'

Wagner Noel, a 16-year-old varsity football player, said coaches called players off the field when the lightning struck. 'We were starting to walk in and we saw the junior varsities walking in too and then we saw this huge lightning. It seemed like it hit the field, so everybody started running,' he said.

Wagner Noel said he and his brother had planned to someday attend the same college. Their dream was to play football together. 'We both had hoped to get to [the University of Miami], or if that couldn't happen, we would go to [Florida Atlantic University] and play on the college team.'

Ronne Berry, whose 14-year-old son Matthew Delvecchio is a Monarch freshman, said she had just gotten off the metal bleachers when the bolt struck. She said Coconut Creek police officers at the scene immediately stepped in to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation to the injured. 'It split a boy's jersey and the pads melted. It looked like something from a movie,' she said. 'To look out on the field and see those boys lying on the field with their shirts completely melted ... it was a nightmare.'

Parents at the game said it didn't appear there were any permanent lightning-detection devices at the field. A Coconut Creek police officer said no alarms sounded to warn players and coaches of the strike. 'We felt thunder and lightning and everybody started running,' said Matthew Abrotsky, a varsity linebacker at Monarch who was about to play when the strike came. 'I saw a lot of kids fall, a lot of kids running.' His father, Mark Abrotsky, a varsity coach at Monarch, said the bolt was the loudest explosion he's ever heard. 'It was like dynamite,' he said.

One of the injured players was Monarch sophomore Malcolm Sylvester. Another victim was Christine Plaut, a Monarch cheerleader, said Cayla McDonald, 14, a cheerleader on the Pompano Beach squad who came to see how Plaut was doing at Broward General. Gabby Perez, 15, a Monarch sophomore, said she was bending to get something out of her bag when she heard a crack. She described what felt like a rubber band that hit her in the neck and then she heard people screaming and running off the field. 'My hair just like stuck up,' said Perez, a cheerleader. 'My mom thought I was joking when I called her and told her I had been struck by lightning.' Pablo Alsina, 15, a sophomore linebacker for Monarch, said the bolt felt like a shock in the head. 'They had us in the locker room and the team just said a little prayer,' Alsina said.

Pompano Beach High Athletic Director Taunya Dix said she saw the first flash and then players started running after the second bolt. 'It happened so fast,' Dix said. 'There was no indication lightning was going to strike.' The storm developed quickly over Broward County's northwest suburbs around 5:30 p.m. and dissipated 30 minutes later, said meteorologist Rob Handel with the National Weather Service in Miami-Dade County. The weather service's lightning detectors picked up only seven strikes. 'It was a very abrupt arrival, which lead to the lack of anticipation of the lightning,' Handel said. 'But all it takes is one strike.'

Each year, Florida averages 19.7 lightning flashes per square mile, the highest number in the nation, according to the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network, a private organization that compiles lightning information. The next state, Louisiana, is well behind, with 15.7. Lightning also kills more people in Florida than in any other state. It usually claims about 10 lives a year in Florida, about 10 percent of the national total.