安杰丽卡·若克莫周日从贝克尔斯菲驱车前往威尼斯海滩与家人一起游玩，这是她第一次来到这座以白沙与杂货店闻名的海滨小镇。
But in an instant, the day at the beach turned into a scene of panic when a perfect storm of rare weather sent lightning bolts and booming thunder from a darkened sky.
但海滩上，天色突然暗了下来，一场罕见的雷暴雨突袭而至，天空一片电闪雷鸣，沙滩上人们惊慌四散。
The midafternoon lightning strikes killed a 20-year-old man who was pulled from the water and injured at least seven others — one of them critically. The 15-minute thunderstorm struck as more than 20,000 people were visiting the southern portion of Venice Beach, where the lightning hit, sending beach-goers scrambling for cover and nearly six dozen rescue workers into action.
下午三时左右，一名在水中的20岁年轻人被闪电击中身亡，闪电还至少击伤了另外7名游客，其中一名伤势严重。暴雨持续了15分钟，威尼斯海滩南部有2万多名游客受灾，游客们争相寻找遮蔽物，约有120名救援人员赶往现场。
"My hair was standing up," Roquemore said. "You could hear everybody screaming."
若克莫说，“我的头发都竖起来了。你可以听到，每个人都在尖叫。”
Climatologist Bill Patzert said the lightning strikes that hit the Southern California coast Sunday from San Diego to Venice are extremely rare. The West Coast has the lowest incidence of lightning strikes in the nation; the odds of being hit are 1 in 7.5 million in California compared to 1 in 600,000 in Florida, the nation's "lightning champion," he said.
气候学家比尔·帕泽特表示，周日加州南部圣地亚哥到威尼斯一带的海滩受到雷击，这一现象十分罕见。西海岸受雷击的几率仅为750万分之一，为全美最低;佛罗里达州则为60万分之一，是美国的“闪电冠军”。
Witnesses said the thunder and lightning were so explosive that it shook homes, triggered car alarms and set dogs barking. Some said they saw lightning as far away as Los Angeles International Airport about 30 minutes before the thunderclaps in Venice. Others said they had no warning at all.
目击者称，当时雷电特别厉害，房子都在摇晃，汽车报警器和狗都在叫。一些人说，雷暴雨突袭威尼斯之前30分钟曾在洛杉矶国际机场看见闪电。另一些人则说，雷暴雨来之前一点预兆也没有。
