Post-meteor shower, South Floridians see lights in sky

Miami, FL, United States (4E) – Some residents in South Florida reported seeing lights in the sky resembling a meteor shower on Sunday, two days after a meteorite crashed and exploded in western Russia damaging nearly 5,000 buildings and injuring more than 1,000 people.

The objects that glowed before disappearing were seen in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. One witness saw it for three seconds over the Biscayne Bay around 6:30 p.m.

The Coast Guard and Broward Sheriff’s Office received calls reporting the bright lights or meteor shower around 7:30 p.m. A Coast Guard helicopter checked out the flares but found nothing, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Sabrina Laberdesque.

Laberdesque said there was no report of injury or boat in distress.

Meanwhile, some 18,000 emergency crew and rescuers were helping Urals, Russia residents who were injured or whose homes were damaged by the shockwave from the meteorite crash.

Russian authorities estimated the cost of damage to buildings caused by the meteorite explosion at more than one billion rubles or $33.2 million.

The explosion had 20 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, Japan during World War II, according to the U.S. space agency, NASA.

---

---