A Florida family was devastated by an extraordinarily rare tragedy over the weekend when a mother and her 2-year-old daughter were struck by lightning outside their home in Margate.
Kenya Glasgow, 31, and her young daughter, Kennedi, were caught in a powerful thunderstorm Sunday afternoon as they were making their way from their vehicle toward a home in the Margate neighborhood north of Fort Lauderdale.
Within moments, both mother and daughter were on the ground.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene after a 911 call reported that two people had been struck by lightning. First responders immediately began lifesaving efforts, including CPR, before transporting the victims to separate hospitals.
Despite those efforts, neither survived.
Margate police said the incident happened at about 2:30 p.m. on August 23 near the 7900 block of Northwest First Street. Kenya was taken to North Broward Medical Center in Deerfield Beach, while her daughter was transported under police escort to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Both were pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospitals.
The circumstances surrounding the strike have left witnesses and the family struggling to understand how a normal attempt to get inside during a summer storm could end so suddenly.
According to witness Prince Moody, who lives across the street, he heard an extremely loud thunderclap and saw an orange glow through his window.
When he realized that someone had been struck, he went outside to help.
Moody told local television station NBC6 that the scene was deeply traumatic. He said he tried to help the family and called 911 as emergency crews were on their way.
The mother and child were found near their vehicle, and witnesses said they appeared to have been getting out of the car when the lightning struck.
But the most heartbreaking account came from Kenya’s husband, Kam Glasgow.
Kam said he was there when the lightning struck his wife and daughter.
He later described the moment as something he could hardly believe had happened.
According to reports, Kam said the family of four had just arrived at his aunt’s house and were attempting to get out of the storm and make their way inside when the lightning strike occurred.
He said he felt the aftershock through the ground after the strike.
His wife and daughter, however, suffered fatal injuries.
Their surviving daughter, Kensli, is Kennedi’s twin sister.
Now, at just 2 years old, Kensli is facing life without the sister who had been beside her since birth.
For Kam, the loss is almost impossible to put into words.
He described Kenya as his best friend and mourned the fact that his daughter had lost her own best friend.
The couple had reportedly been together for around 15 years and had been married for four years, according to Kam’s account reported by local media.
In a message shared after the tragedy, he expressed his love for his wife and daughter while also speaking about the importance of showing kindness and appreciating the people around us.
His words reflected both the shock of losing two members of his immediate family at once and the reality that he now has to continue raising their surviving daughter.
The family had been together only moments before the lightning strike.
Then, in an instant, everything changed.
The tragedy occurred during one of South Florida’s frequent summer thunderstorms. The region regularly experiences severe thunderstorms during the summer months, with lightning strikes occurring across the area.
But while lightning is common, a direct strike on a person remains extremely rare.
The National Weather Service has recorded lightning-related deaths across the United States this year, but the overwhelming majority of people who are struck by lightning survive. The Sun reported that before Kenya and Kennedi’s deaths, nine people had died from lightning strikes in the United States in 2026.
That rarity makes the circumstances of the Margate tragedy even more difficult for the family and community to process.
There was no indication that the family was involved in any other type of emergency. They were simply trying to get through a thunderstorm.
Police and firefighters arrived quickly after the 911 call.
First responders immediately began CPR and other emergency treatment before transporting the mother and child to hospitals.
But the injuries were too severe.
Both were pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Margate Police Department has not released extensive additional details about the circumstances surrounding the strike.
The department has expressed its condolences to Kenya’s family and loved ones, while the incident remains under investigation.
For the Glasgow family, however, the investigation is only one part of the tragedy.
The larger story is the sudden loss of a mother and one of her two young daughters.
Kenya was 31.
Kennedi was only 2.
And Kennedi’s identical twin, Kensli, survived.
The little girl will now grow up with memories of a sister she was born alongside but will never have the opportunity to grow up with.
Kam has spoken publicly about his grief while trying to focus on the daughter who remains with him.
He has also urged people to remember the positive impact his wife and daughter had on those around them and to choose love and kindness.
The message comes at a moment when the family is facing an unimaginable reality: a storm that lasted only minutes changed the course of their lives forever.
The deaths also serve as a reminder of how quickly thunderstorms can become dangerous.
Lightning does not have to strike a person directly to cause serious injury, and people outdoors during thunderstorms can be exposed to multiple hazards. When thunder is heard, weather officials generally advise moving indoors and remaining there until the threat has passed.
For the Glasgow family, those safety warnings now carry a painful significance.
Kenya and Kennedi were trying to get inside when the lightning struck.
They never made it.
Their deaths have left a husband without his wife, a toddler without her twin sister, and a family trying to understand how such an extraordinarily rare event could take two lives at the same time.
The investigation into the incident continues, but for those who knew Kenya and Kennedi, the most important part of the story is no longer the storm.
It is the two lives that were lost.
A 31-year-old mother.
Her 2-year-old daughter.
And a family that will now have to move forward without them.
As Kam mourns his wife and daughter and cares for their surviving child, he is left with the memories of the family they were — and the painful knowledge that a few seconds during an ordinary Florida thunderstorm changed everything.
For a family that had simply been trying to escape the rain and reach the safety of a doorway, the storm became a tragedy they could never have imagined.