Nation’s First Lightning Fatality This Year at Larose Music Festival Saturday

28 year old New Orleans native Jacqui Stavis became the first fatality this year due to lighting strike on Saturday in Larose. Stavis was attending the T-Bois Blues Festival in Larose when lightning struck her campsite on Friday night. She was taken to Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Cut Off, where she died on Saturday. Two other women, who were also in the same tent as Stavis, were injured from electric shock and taken to local hospitals.

Volunteer firefighters and paramedics were called to the scene shortly after a ferocious storm rolled in around 10:00 pm in the area. Several Acadiana bands were performing at the festival, which ran from March 17- 20 in Larose. The Advocate has more details about the death of Stavis, but we do know that she is the first fatality this year in the United States from a lightning strike.