The oldest Washington Monument, a stone structure in a Western Maryland state park that predates the District’s obelisk, was struck by lightning as ferocious thunderstorms swept through the region Thursday afternoon.
Three travelers hiking the Appalachian Trail had taken refuge from the storm inside the 1827 monument in Washington County, and they were blasted out of the structure by the force of the lightning strike, said Candy Thomson, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Natural Resources Police.
One of the hikers struck her head on the steps of the building, and she was treated at a Hagerstown hospital for a laceration, Thomson said. The two other hikers were stunned but apparently unhurt, she said.
Thomson said that stones at the top of the monument had been blown off by the lightning strike and that the monument would remain closed until experts can inspect it for further damage Friday. It seems to have escaped significant structural damage, she said. Thursday’s lightning strike was apparently not the first in its 188-year history.
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In the immediate D.C. area, numerous trees were downed by Thursday’s storm, and traffic was disrupted throughout the region as drivers tried to navigate the afternoon rush through heavy rain, powerful wind gusts and even hail in some places.
Some residents of Fairfax County, and the Reston area in particular, took to Twitter to describe the destructive nature of the storm front. “At least 4 homes condemned in our neighborhood by falling trees,” one person posted. “Way worse than the derecho [a powerful storm in 2012] here.”
With the number of power outages generally declining through the evening, about 15,000 customers were without power in Northern Virginia about 8:30 p.m. In Maryland, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties the numbers at that time were about 2,400 and 1,850, respectively.
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