Three people have died and one remains critically injured after being struck by lightning near the White House on Thursday night, including a husband and wife from Wisconsin celebrating more than five decades of marriage.
Dramatic images showed bolts streaking through the air on Thursday as a severe thunderstorm swept through the US capital. Scientists say that the climate crisis is increasing the likelihood of lightning strikes across the country.
James Mueller, 76, and Donna Mueller, 75, of Janesville, Wisconsin, died of their injuries after the lightning strike in Lafayette Park, located directly outside the White House complex, the Metropolitan police department said on Friday.
Two other people were also hospitalized in critical condition after the strike, the police department said. Their identities were not immediately released.
On Friday afternoon, police said one of those two people had succumbed to their injuries, according to multiple news reports.
The hot, humid conditions in the capital were primed for electricity. Air temperatures topped out at 94F (34C), or 5F higher than the 30-year normal maximum temperature, according to the National Weather Service.
More heat can draw more moisture into the atmosphere, while also encouraging rapid updraft, two factors for charged particles, which lead to lightning.
A study released in 2014 in the journal Science warned that the number of lightning strikes could increase by 50% in this century in the US, with each 1.8F of warming translating into a 12% rise in the number of lightning strikes.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre put out a statement on Friday morning, saying: “We are saddened by the tragic loss of life after the lightning strike in Lafayette Park. Our hearts are with the families who lost loved ones, and we are praying for those still fighting for their lives.”
The Muellers were on a trip to Washington DC to celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary, according to their niece, Michelle McNett, of Janesville.
“They were a very loving couple,” McNett told the Wisconsin State Journal. “They were very, very family oriented. I think everyone’s just in shock right now.”
The couple had five children, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, she told the paper. Donna Mueller was a teacher and in retirement worked at the Comfort Shoppe, a local furniture store. Jim, 76, was a retired contractor who had his own drywall business.
The husband and wife, according to their niece, loved having gatherings and just had a big family gathering a couple of weeks ago.
“They were very religious,” said. “Just the kind of people who would give the shirt off their back to do anything for you, both of them.”
Officers with the Secret Service and the US park police witnessed the lightning strike and ran over to render first aid, officials said. Emergency medical crews were called to the scene just before 7pm and had transported all of the victims to the hospital with “critical, life-threatening injures”, fire department spokesman Vito Maggiolo said.
In a separate incident on Thursday, a lightning strike in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton national forest killed one student and injured another, officials said.
John D Murphy, 22, of Boston, died of cardiac arrest after being hit by lightning while on a trip with a group from the National Outdoor Leadership School, a non-profit global wilderness school.
