This can't be true. We have thunder and lightning on a regular enough basis. The lightning is rarely of the fork variety though. And although the 'named' storms usually pass without much damage, it's not uncommon for people to be killed by falling trees etc. and large numbers of people to lose power. We're very lucky when it comes to lack of dangerous natural phenomena or animals but thunder is incredibly common.

I live in Dublin. People say the weather is much milder here. I would expect the other coasts to be much, much worse.