Two of those hospitalized after an apparent lightning strike Thursday evening in Lafayette Square, north of the White House, have died, a D.C. police spokesman said Friday.
Four people, two men and two women, were seriously injured in the strike shortly before 7 p.m. in the center of the park, in a grove of trees about 100 feet southeast of the Andrew Jackson statue, fire department spokesman Vito Maggiolo said at a news conference Thursday night. The U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police provided assistance to the victims, assistance that fire officials credited with the initial survival of all victims.
Police identified the dead as Donna Mueller, 75, and James Mueller, 76, a married couple from Wisconsin. The others remain in critical condition, police said.
What happens when lightning strikes and how to stay safe
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement: “We are saddened by the tragic loss of life following the lightning strike in Lafayette Park. Our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones, and we pray for those who are still fighting for their lives.”
The lightning was triggered by a strong thunderstorm that swept through the district shortly before 7 p.m. The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for much of the Beltway between 6:30 and 7:15 p.m., warning of threat of damaging wind gusts. up to 60 mph and quarter hail.
Chris Vagasky, an analyst at Vaisala, which operates a national lightning detection network, said in a message that there was “6 lightning strikes near the White House that hit the same spot on the ground” at 6 p.m. :49. He explained that this meant six individual surges of electricity reached the same point on the ground in half a second.
Vagasky tweeted that between 2010 and 2021, “289 cloud-to-ground flashes occurred within 1 mile of the White House, an average of 24 per year.”
“This incident underscores the need for people to get to safety whenever there’s a storm in the area,” John Jensenius, a safety specialist with the National Lightning Safety Council, said in an email. “Even distant thunder should serve as a warning to immediately enter an important building or hard metal.”
Lightning struck during a severe thunderstorm in Washington, DC, before four people were reportedly struck near the White House on August 4. (Video: Dave Statter)
Lightning kills 23 people in the United States in an average year. Thursday’s fatalities in the district brought the number of lightning strikes in 2022 to 11, matching the total for 2021. According to the Lightning Safety Council, this is the first fatal lightning incident in the district since 1991, when a teenager died and 10 other people were injured at School of St. Albans in northwest Washington.
In June 2020, two National Guardsmen were injured in a lightning strike near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Northwest Washington. In 1998, a woman was seriously injured and other spectators were injured when lightning struck RFK Stadium during a concert.
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July and August are the months of maximum lightning intensity in the United States.
Numerous thunderstorms, containing frequent lightning, rolled through the region Thursday evening after temperatures soared into the mid- and upper 90s earlier in the day, prompting a heat advisory. Heat indices, a measure of how hot you feel taking humidity into account, reached between 100 and 110 degrees.
Storms are forecast for the Washington region again on Friday and into the weekend. The Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the area Friday afternoon and evening.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Clarence Williams and Emily Davies contributed to this report.