When Amber Escudero-Kontostathis regained consciousness days after she was struck by lightning, she had a nasty feeling that there have been different victims.
Washington
She was the only one to survive a lightning strike. She wonders why.
“I simply bear in mind studying an article and being like, ‘There isn’t a method,’ ” she mentioned in an interview Tuesday with The Washington Submit. “However then I checked out photographs of the older couple.”
Officers say Escudero-Kontostathis had ended up huddled with the couple — Donna Mueller, 75, and James Mueller, 76 — and 29-year-old Brooks A. Lambertson, a financial institution official on the town from Los Angeles, as a storm rolled in on Aug. 4. However Escudero-Kontostathis mentioned her final reminiscence was speaking with the Muellers, who have been in D.C. to have fun their 56th wedding ceremony anniversary, earlier that day.
Escudero-Kontostathis approached them as a part of her work with the Worldwide Rescue Committee, canvassing the realm for donations to assist refugees in Ukraine. They bonded over the Muellers’ dwelling state of Wisconsin, the place Escudero-Kontostathis had lately traveled for a household reunion, and the fun of visiting the Inexperienced Bay Packers stadium, Escudero-Kontostathis recalled.
She really useful that they take a look at the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition and Planet Phrase whereas in D.C.
The subsequent factor she knew, Escudero-Kontostathis mentioned, she was mendacity in a hospital mattress, with IVs puncturing her physique. An image of the Muellers was now flashing on her iPad. They have been killed, the article mentioned. In some way, she was nonetheless alive.
Within the days since lightning struck at Lafayette Sq., Escudero-Kontostathis has discovered to reside with second-degree burns down her left aspect that really feel like “10,000 grains of sand try to get by way of every pore on the similar time.” However the guilt of surviving the lightning strike that killed the Muellers and Lambertson haunts her.
Escudero-Kontostathis mentioned she can not bear in mind the minutes earlier than the strike, however she worries that she motioned for the Muellers to affix her below a tree to hunt shelter from the rain.
“My greatest concern is that I referred to as again out to them,” she mentioned. “I couldn’t reside with myself if that’s the case. It’s my greatest concern, that it’s as a result of I needed to say ‘Hello’ yet one more time earlier than they left.”
She feels comparable pangs about Lambertson, a vice chairman at Metropolis Nationwide Financial institution. Escudero-Kontostathis mentioned she doesn’t recall interacting with him that day, however she has since discovered that they share mutual pals from California.
“I’ve this guilt of, ‘Why did I make it?’ ” she mentioned. “I attempt to calm myself with gratitude of, ‘Nicely, I did, so I’m not going to waste it.’ ”
The 4 victims of the lightning strike have been introduced collectively by happenstance — three out-of-towners and Escudero-Kontostathis, standing collectively not removed from the president’s dwelling.
It was Escudero-Kontostathis’s twenty eighth birthday, and it was nearing time for her birthday dinner on the Hamilton when the storm rolled in.
Earlier than 6 p.m. that day, she declined a name from her sister-in-law and nieces, who needed to want her a cheerful birthday.
“At work Rn @thewhitehouse ! Dinnertonight tho!” she wrote from her Apple Watch.
She then acquired out her telephone and took two photos of the sky, with darkish clouds approaching.
“Went from feeling like 105° all day (actually primarily based on my climate app) and now right here comes thunder,” she texted her sister-in-law, including a laugh-crying emoji.
About an hour later, she and the three others ended up sheltering from the pouring rain below a tall, leafy tree about 100 ft from the statue of Andrew Jackson, officers have mentioned. Specialists recorded a lightning flash within the space as six particular person surges of electrical energy hit the identical level on the bottom inside half a second.
“It shook the entire space,” an eyewitness informed The Submit. “Actually like a bomb went off, that’s the way it sounded.”
All 4 have been taken to a hospital. Authorities quickly revealed the Muellers had been killed. So, too, had Lambertson, whose dad described him as “most likely the perfect human being I do know.”
Escudero-Kontostathis’s coronary heart additionally stopped, along with her husband 12 minutes away from choosing her up for dinner. However two nurses visiting the White Home on trip rushed to assist. They carried out CPR on all 4 victims, alongside legislation enforcement.
It’s unclear why solely Escudero-Kontostathis survived.
Quite a few storms with frequent lightning flared within the area that Thursday night, with temperatures within the mid-to-upper 90s earlier within the day.
Specialists warn that standing below a tree in such situations could be harmful. When a tree is hit by {an electrical} cost, moisture and sap simply conduct the electrical energy and carry it to the encircling floor, in keeping with a Nationwide Climate Service webpage on lightning science.
If the electrical energy struck the tree first, specialists mentioned, tons of of hundreds of thousands of volts would have handed by way of the tree earlier than touring into and over the our bodies of these beneath it.
Escudero-Kontostathis, whose time educating English within the Center East impressed her to assist these suffering from struggle and poverty, thinks her footwear may need helped save her. That day, she was sporting sandals with thick rubber soles, which she mentioned she believes may have absorbed a few of the electrical energy.
She wore those self same platform footwear again to Lafayette Sq. on Monday, when “Good Morning America” filmed her reuniting with the nurses whom she credit with saving her life.
Underneath blue skies, Escudero-Kontostathis stood on the grassy park outdoors of the White Home, utilizing a walker. Jessee Bonty and Nolan Haggard, the emergency nurses from Texas who carried out CPR on these injured within the blast, walked towards her.
“Hello, I’m Jessee, can I provide you with a hug?” mentioned Bonty, who two weeks in the past had felt Escudero-Kontostathis’s hand grip hers earlier than dropping its pulse on two separate events.
“Hello, I’m Amber. Sure, please,” Escudero-Kontostathis replied, earlier than wrapping her bandaged arms across the girl who saved her.
That evening, Escudero-Kontostathis and her husband went to the Hamilton for the birthday dinner she by no means had. They introduced Bonty and Haggard with them.
“We’re actually besties now,” she mentioned. “They are going to be in my life perpetually.”
William Wan contributed to this report.
The Washington Commanders have their rookie class in place after the 2025 NFL Draft.
However, the team could still use another pass rusher, and ESPN insider John Keim believes that former Buffalo Bills star Von Miller could fit in Washington.
READ MORE: WATCH: Washington D.C. Mayor releases hype video for Commanders new stadium deal
“None of Washington’s current edge rushers recorded more than 5.5 sacks last season after the Commanders let Dante Fowler Jr., and his 10.5 sacks, exit in free agency. But they didn’t draft an edge rusher. Washington likes its depth at the position and beefed up its front to handle the run — a bigger issue than the pass rush in 2024 — but the Commanders also were interested in DeMarcus Lawrence and Joey Bosa in free agency. So, they could still seek more help, with veterans such as Za’Darius Smith and Von Miller, among others, still available,” Keim wrote.
The Commanders will have a chance to sign a pass rusher or two in free agency as the offseason continues along.
READ MORE: Sports Illustrated grades for the Commanders’ 2025 NFL Draft class
Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2025 offseason.
• Commanders QB reveals wild recruitment story
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The Washington Commanders will build a new stadium in Washington, D.C., returning the team to its namesake city, sources familiar with the plan tell News4.
The plan to be announced Monday between District and team leadership will see the construction of a state-of-the-art arena on the former RFK stadium site along the banks of the Anacostia River.
Details of the deal are expected to be outlined by Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Commanders’ owners at a news conference Monday morning.
Who’s paying for the new Commanders stadium, and how much will it cost?
News4 reported on the impending deal earlier this month. Documents obtained by News4 showed that the Commanders would put up as much as $2.5 billion, and the District would provide up to $850 million.
D.C.’s funding would go toward what are referred to as eligible capital costs associated with the stadium and infrastructure for the stadium and surrounding 180-acre campus, including parking structures that will serve the entire development.
The District’s investment would be paid in installments, with the first $500 million paid out between 2026 and 2030 for various portions of the work, as the stadium and infrastructure are completed. The other $350 million would be paid in 2032 through taxes generated from the new development to cover costs of the stadium or stadium infrastructure.
On a brand new “All Ears with JP Finlay,” JP breaks down all 5 of the Commanders 2025 Draft picks, what they did right and what they missed. Hear from GM Adam Peters and Washington’s top 2 draft picks about what they bring to the Burgundy and Gold.
The final contribution by the team could be less than $2.5 billion, sources familiar with the negotiations told News4.
When would a new Commanders stadium be finished?
The deal calls for the stadium and parking to be completed by fall 2030. Commanders owner Josh Harris has been clear he wants a new stadium to be ready for the 2030 season.
Long before the move to Maryland, the team played at the now-demolished Griffith Stadium in Northwest D.C. It then called RFK Stadium home from 1961 to 1996. Harris and several co-owners grew up as Washington football fans during that era, which included three Super Bowl championships from 1982 to 1991.
The Commanders’ lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, runs through 2027.
The Commanders were looking for a new stadium for years, considering locations in D.C., Virginia and Maryland.
A potential return to D.C. has included efforts by Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to lobby lawmakers to pass legislation transferring the land from the federal government to D.C. It made it through Congress at the eleventh hour, and former President Joe Biden signed it in early January.
News4 will have live coverage of the announcement Monday.
MOSS POINT, Miss. (WLOX) – Thermoplastic wheels rolled across Main Street in Moss Point as the Deborah Washington Memorial Soap Box Derby marked its 33rd racing competition.
Homemade gravity-powered carts simultaneously raced to pass the finish line.
“Whenever you go, it’s like you go so fast you can feel the wind. It’s just amazing,” racer Cassadee Lawson said.
“It was scary and fun at the same time,” soap box racer Aaleyah said.
Families lined the streets, cheering as each race began.
“If your child participates, they start learning how to drive, cause you gotta stay in your lane,” Gladys Vaughn said.
Vaughn is breast cancer warrior Deborah Washington’s mother. Washington spearheaded the event decades ago, starting with seven participants; now, more than 40 racers compete in Moss Point.
“Deborah was the type person she would keep you laughing. She was a comedian, she was everything,” Vaughn said.
It’s all because of Washington that the competitive race exists today. Vaughn says she would be blown away by how much it has grown.
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