Friday’s lightning strike injured two other women, ages 24 and 30, who had sought shelter from a severe storm in the same small tent with Stavis. One woman was transported to University Medical Center in New Orleans, while the other remained in a hospital not far from the festival, according to a statement by Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre. After receiving a call about the injuries shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies, volunteer firefighters and paramedics went to the scene and found Stavis unresponsive and the other two woman suffering from electric shock. Webre also said a large Labrador dog in the tent with the women was killed in the incident.
– When the weather got bad at Louisiana's T-Bois Blues Festival on Friday night, Jacqui Stavis, two other women, and a Labrador retriever sought shelter in a small tent. But tragedy struck when lightning hit the tent, killing the 28-year-old and the dog and injuring the other two women, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office says in a statement picked up by BuzzFeed. The other two women, ages 30 and 24 and also from New Orleans like Stavis, were hospitalized with "injuries commonly associated with electric shock." Stavis, who grew up in New England, New York, and Wisconsin, had always been fascinated by New Orleans, and moved there in 2009, friends tell the Advocate. "She just dove into the culture of New Orleans, just became a part of it," one friend says. "The Falgout Family is deeply saddened by the tragic event that occurred this weekend at T-Bois Blues Festival," festival organizers posted on Facebook Sunday. (The festival is held on an alligator and crawfish farm owned by the Falgout family, and "Alligator Mike" Falgout produces the festival.) "Every attendee of this small festival is part of the T-Bois family, and we feel as though we lost a family member this weekend. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Stavis family and all those who love Jacqui." Another post on the page notes that Stavis changed her cover photo to a scene from the festival (it appears to be from a past year's festival) while she was in attendance this year. NOLA.com rounds up other Facebook tributes to Stavis, who worked as a massage therapist.