When Amber
Escudero-Kontostathis regained consciousness days after she was struck by lightning, she had a bad feeling that there were other victims.
So the 28-year-old grabbed the iPad beside her hospital bed and typed “Lightning Strike D.C.” into a Google search. She saw headlines that three people had died, and one person had survived during a storm near the White House. But it wasn’t until she saw two familiar faces in pictures that she grew distressed.
“I just remember reading an article and being like, ‘There is no way,’ ” she said“But then I looked at photos of the older couple.”
Officials 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 bank official in town from Los Angeles, as a storm rolled in on Aug. 4. But Escudero-Kontostathis said her last memory was talking with the Muellers, who were
in D.C. to celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary, earlier that day.
Escudero-Kontostathis approached them as part of her work with the International Rescue Committee, canvassing the area for donations to help refugees in Ukraine. They bonded over the Muellers’ home state of Wisconsin, where Escudero-Kontostathis had recently traveled for a family reunion...read more
