Officials release pic showing hat of boy, 11, struck by lightning at Daytona Beach Shores

Boy taken to hospital in serious condition

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. – Volusia County Beach Patrol released on Thursday the report on the boy who was struck by lightning earlier this week, including a picture of the boy's torn hat.

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Bowen Tyre, an 11-year-old boy from Georgia, was fishing in the water with his father when he was struck by lightning in Daytona Beach Shores on Tuesday.

Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue said it has a system in place that alerts them when and where lighting strikes, but said it didn't get any alerts on Tuesday until the lightning bolt hit.

"This one was very unexpected and no one saw it coming," said Capt. Tammy Marris, with Volusia County Beach Safety and Ocean Rescue.

The bolt struck Bowen on the left side of his head and exited through his upper pelvic area.

"Lightning is very dangerous, and as you can see by the hat, you realize what it can do to a person," Marris said.

Marris said they are equipped with an an email system that shows when and where lightning strikes.

"Whenever we get lightning close by, it'll tell us exactly the mileage and the distance away from where the lightning is from where we're at," she said.

However, there wasn't an early warning in Bowen's case.

"There were no storms in the immediate area, they were off to the distance," Marris said.

Beach Safety and Ocean Rescue also said now that summer storms are rolling in, they'll be doing what's called red light conditions on a daily basis.

"We clear the water, we make everyone exit the water and we strongly encourage people to seek shelter," she said.

Marris said this is to hopefully prevent from something like this from happening again.

Bowen was taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital Wednesday in serious condition.

Bowen's family posted on Facebook that Bowen is doing "as good as could be expected" and that doctors are slowly removing sedation in an effort to get Bowen off a ventilator.

Watch Local 6 for more on this story.


About the Authors:

Loren Korn is a native Texan who joined the News 6 team as a reporter in May 2014. She was born and raised in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Journalism.

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