A South Florida father stood just feet away and watched a bolt of lightning kill his wife and one of their 2-year-old twin daughters in a matter of seconds on Sunday afternoon.
Kameron Glasgow, his wife Kenya, 31, and their identical twins Kennedi and Kensli had just pulled up to his aunt’s house in Margate for a family dinner. Rain was starting to pick up. The couple decided to get the girls inside fast. Kenya and Kennedi stepped out of the car onto the sidewalk near 7941 Northwest 1st Street. Kensli stayed in the vehicle. Kameron was about 15 feet away.
Then the lightning hit.
“I saw the whole thing,” Kameron later told reporters, voice breaking. “A bolt of lightning came down, I got hit with the residuals from the ground and I looked over and that’s when I saw them.” He described the moment as the worst feeling in the world.
It was roughly 2:30 p.m. on August 23. Margate police and fire rescue raced to the scene after a 911 call reported two people down on the sidewalk. First responders started CPR immediately. Kenya was rushed to North Broward Medical Center in Deerfield Beach. Kennedi was taken under police escort to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. Both were pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Neighbors described a sudden, violent strike. One man, Prince Moody, said he had just gotten his own family indoors when he heard a massive boom and saw an orange glow. Another person who tried to help reported burn marks and smoke rising from the victims’ bodies.
Kameron and Kenya had been together for 15 years, since they were teenagers. They were weeks away from their fourth wedding anniversary. He called her his best friend and the love of his life. Kenya worked as a program specialist at CAN Community Health, a nonprofit focused on HIV care. Friends and family remembered her as the person who always put everyone else first. “That was my hero next to my dad,” Kameron said. “She helped make me into the man I am today.”
Kennedi was known as a little singer who knew Benson Boone songs by heart. She and her twin sister Kensli were inseparable. Kensli survived only because she was still buckled in the car.
The next day Kameron posted a raw message on Facebook: “I just lost my best friend. My daughter just lost her best friend. After I lost my father a few years ago I learned a very valuable lesson and that’s to never question God. My babies didn’t suffer. I’m hurt; we are hurt, but if you’ve gotten the chance to feel that beautiful light my wife and daughter brought into your life, cherish it… Kenya, Kennedi, I Love You Both So Much. I Thank You Both For Choosing Me As Your Husband And Father. Don’t worry about Kensli and I. I know you both have us covered for the rest of our lives. We will make you both our story and take it one day at a time because I know you both are guiding us.”
Florida leads the nation in lightning deaths. AccuWeather recorded more than 120 strikes within 10 miles of the Margate neighborhood in the half-hour around the tragedy, including dozens of cloud-to-ground bolts. The National Weather Service had already issued a special weather statement as the storm built rapidly over Broward County.
Margate police said the case remains under investigation and offered deepest condolences to the family. Kameron and Kensli are now leaning on what he calls their “village” of relatives and friends while trying to carry Kenya and Kennedi’s memory forward, one day at a time.
A simple decision to hurry out of the rain ended two lives in a flash. A husband and a surviving twin are left with the silence that followed.
