Yahoo Finance Woman Says Being the Sole Survivor of Deadly Lightning Strike Near White House Doesn't 'Feel Good'
The sole survivor of a lightning strike that killed three people near the White House earlier this month is speaking publicly for the first time about what happened.
Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, told Good Morning America that on Aug. 4, she had been canvassing outside the White House for a nonprofit organization called Threshold Giving when it started to rain. She took shelter under a tree in Lafayette Square with three other people.
According to GMA, the group was hit by six bolts of lightning in just half a second.
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"I don't know why I survived," Escudero-Kontostathis tearfully said during the interview. "I don't feel good about being the only survivor, that's for sure. I'm grateful, but I just don't feel good about being the only one."
Police identified those killed by the lightning strike as James Mueller, 76, and Donna Mueller, 75, of Wisconsin, and Brooks Lambertson, 29, of Los Angeles.
DC Fire & EMS/Twitter
Escudero-Kontostathis suffered significant burns from the strikes, which she said traveled through the ground into her body, per GMA
The activist now requires a walker to move around.
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"You wake up and you think that you can just get up and go and brush your teeth or get a cup of coffee yourself and I can't, my whole left side's pretty charred," Escudero-Kontostathis explained.
DC Fire & EMS/Twitter
Lambertson, a vice president for City National Bank, was visiting the nation's capital for business, according to CBS News. Meanwhile, the Muellers were in town to celebrate their 56th anniversary.
"They were a very loving couple," niece Michelle McNett told the Wisconsin State Journal. "They were very, very family-oriented. I think everyone's just in shock right now."
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Though she does not "remember much of that day at all," Escudero-Kontostathis told GMA she does recall chatting with the Wisconsin couple before they were all struck by lightning.
"I hope they weren't there because of me," she said.
