Nearly 2.7 million residents in the Mid-Atlantic continue to face a grim reality on Monday after muggy homes, spoiled food, and a threatening commute filled with non-working stoplights. Two days after storms raged through the Mid-Atlantic region, power outages were forcing people to spend money on hotels and find creative ways to remain cool in dangerously hot weather. Temperatures reached and exceeded 100 degrees in many storm-stricken areas, and utility companies said the power could possibly be out for several more days.
The storms that began on Friday are also the cause of 17 deaths, most from trees falling on homes and cars. The bulk of the damage occurred in West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.’s Virginia and Maryland suburbs. At least six of the dead were killed in Virginia, including a 90-year-old woman who was asleep when a tree crashed into her home. Two young cousins were killed in New Jersey when a tree fell on their tent while camping. Two people were killed in Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky, and one in D.C. Coast Guard officials said they suspended a search for a man who went missing early on Saturday while boating during the storm off Maryland. Meteorologists are calling the weekend’s storms, a meteorological phenomenon known as a derecho, which moved quickly across the region with little warning. The straight-line winds were as destructive as any hurricane. “Unlike a polite hurricane that gives you three days of warning, this storm gave us all the impact of a hurricane without any of the warning,” said Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
