Lightning strike kills 50 pigs days before sale in Vietnam, costing farmer $11,500

The incident occurred in Tung Phuc Village in Bich Hao Commune at around 6:00 pm when a thunderstorm accompanied by lightning swept through the area, said a local official.

Lightning struck the livestock facilities of 49-year-old Hoang Van Kinh, killing all 50 pigs being raised for meat.

Kinh said his family had spent nearly four months raising the herd, which was approaching market weight.

Each pig weighed more than 110 kilograms.

The family planned to sell them to recover the investment and continue production.

However, a single lightning strike wiped out much of the family’s hard-earned assets.

With live pig prices currently at around VND57,000 ($2.2) per kilogram and the herd weighing more than 5.5 metric tons in total, Kinh estimated his financial loss at some VND300 million.

“The pigs were only days away from being sold, and our family was looking forward to recovering the money we had invested,” Kinh said sadly.

“We never imagined something like this would happen.”

Kinh’s family has been raising pigs for nearly nine years, but he said this was their biggest loss caused by a natural disaster.

His family remains financially vulnerable, making the sudden loss of the entire herd a severe economic blow, said the official.

Rain and thunderstorms, paired with lightning, battered the province on Sunday due to a strengthening cold high-pressure system, according to the Nghe An weather center.

At noon on September 25, a 47-year-old woman was struck by lightning while riding a motorbike in the rain on a street in the province.

She was subsequently hospitalized for treatment.