ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — An alarm atop a sports facilities building will sound at 13 Anne Arundel County public schools when lightning is within an eight-mile radius of the device.
The Earth Networks Total Lightning Network can detect in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning.
“Once that siren goes off, we’re going to know it’s time to seek shelter,” Baseball coach and Assistant Athletic Director at Glen Burnie High School, Brian Kellner, told WUSA9 he’s thrilled to take the guesswork out of lightning safety. “We’re going to be able to keep our student-athletes safe.”
Prior to this technology, coaches and referees had to make their own call on whether it was safe to play. According to the CDC, there are an average of 28 deaths per year related to lightning strikes.
A senior soccer and lacrosse player at Glen Burnie, Karen Morales, says there has been uncertainty on the field in the past.
“Maybe someone saw, oh yeah we saw lightning but the ref didn’t see it, so it’s like we don’t know exactly where it stands," Morales said.
“They provide a consistent way for all of our student-athletes for all of our coaches for all of our families who might be attending an event to be forewarned of impending weather and the need to evacuate," said Bob Mosier, the chief communications officer for Anne Arundel County Public School.
When lightning is detected, a horn will sound for 15 seconds and a strobe light will activate as an indicator to seek shelter indoors and all activities will be immediately suspended for at least 30 minutes. Once the area has gone 30 minutes without lightning detection, the light will go out and there will be three five-second horn alerts, along with an all-clear signal sent to the phones of school administrators, coaches and advisers to serve as a notification that activities can resume safely.
"It was a really good implement to the school and I feel like it’s really going to help with the upcoming season,” said Timothy Shadare, a junior at Glen Burnie High School who plays basketball and football.
“I mean you can hear it from all over," Morales added. "It’s just a great help."
The office staff as well as school-based athletics and facilities will monitor the new system and test it regularly. The Anne Arundel County Public Schools athletics website has a new tab that displays the current status for all 13 schools equipped with the alarm system.
The alarm system will be active from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week so it can also protect recreational teams and others using the high school facilities as well.