The powerful storm that hit Washington this Thursday left two dead in a lightning strike near the White House in the heart of the capital. James Mueller, 76, and his wife Donna Mueller, 75, died Friday, police said. Another man and woman who were electrocuted are in critical condition.
The two fatalities, originally from Wisconsin, were in Lafayette Square, the tree-lined plaza open to the public adjacent to the White House grounds, as they crossed Pennsylvania Avenue, a pedestrian street in that section. It’s a place that thousands of Washington residents and workers and tourists from around the world pass through every day.
Secret Service officials were among the first to attend to the victims who were near the center of the square. Emergency services were dispatched to the area and the four victims were taken to hospital alive but in critical condition.
Because of the risk of flooding, storms and thunderstorms after a very hot day in the federal capital and the entire region, the civil protection services issued a warning for much of the afternoon. It was pouring rain and there was frequent lightning. The one that reached the victims crashed just before 19:00 (local time, 01:00 in mainland Spain). The four had taken shelter from the rain under a tree. “Trees are not safe places. It’s a very dangerous place for anyone sheltering under a tree,” said Vito Maggiolo, spokesman for the capital’s fire department, during an appearance on Thursday.
According to the United States’ National Weather Service (NWS), over the past decade, an average of 23 people have been killed by lightning across the country each year. July and August are the months with the highest number of deaths from electrocution from lightning. So far this year, nine deaths have been recorded as of last Tuesday. According to statistics from the National Weather Service (NWS), none of the more than 400 deaths in the past 15 years had occurred in the District of Columbia.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the chance of being struck by lightning is one in a million. 90% of the victims survive. Florida, Texas, Colorado, North Carolina, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are the states with the most deaths and injuries from lightning strikes. Florida is considered the country’s blitz capital with more than 2,000 injuries over the past 50 years, according to the CDC. Since 2006, only five states (Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Washington) other than the District of Columbia have not recorded any deaths from lightning.
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