Although This Happened Several Days Ago,

Mr. Tony and myself were chatting about it on Sunday,

 the power of lightening, I guess we all think that lightening strikes you directly or if you are standing under a conductor, say a tree, as the lightening 'grounds' it can kill you, John Jensenius, a lightning safety expert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explains, "First, there's a direct strike — this is what most people think of when they think of lightning — that hits the tree or maybe the ground nearby, the energy then spreads along the ground surface, and if you're anywhere near that lightning strike, you absorb it and get shocked." the lightning current travels up one leg and down another, Jensenius said, so animals are more vulnerable because their legs are more spread out — the ground currents travel more easily in their bodies, 

the animals were found in Hardangervidda, a national park that is home to an estimated 10,000 wild reindeer, Europe's largest herd, as herd animals, reindeer typically travel together in large groups, Kjartan Knutsen, a spokesman for the Norwegian Environment Agency, told The Associated Press that reindeer tend to stay very close to each other in bad weather, which could explain how so many were killed at once, though it is not uncommon for reindeer and other wildlife to be killed by lightning strikes, the agency said this is the deadliest known event to date, a total of 323 reindeer, including 70 calves, were killed during a lightning storm on Friday (Aug. 26), according to the Norwegian Environment Agency, of the 323 reindeer killed, five were euthanized because of their injuries, agency officials said, never underestimate the power of lightning.