WASHINGTON (Reuters) – About 3.9 million homes and businesses were without power yesterday amid a record heat wave in the eastern United States after deadly thunderstorms downed power lines from Indiana to New Jersey.
Statewide emergencies were declared in Washington DC, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia because of damage from overnight storms, which brought hurricane-force winds along a 500-mile stretch. At least nine people were killed.
Forecasters predicted more severe thunderstorms partnered with renewed heat on Saturday.
Restoring power in some areas could take up to a week. Utilities in Ohio and Virginia described damage as catastrophic.
“It’s going to be a while before some folks get power, and with the heat, that’s our big concern,” said Bob Spieldenner, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
More than 1 million Virginia customers had no power in the worst outage not linked to a hurricane in the state’s history, he said.
Six people were killed in Virginia in storm-related incidents.
Utilities or state emergency agencies reported the following outages and damage:
– Maryland: About 869,000 customers without power with outages reported in every county.
– West Virginia: More than 600,000 customers without power.
– Ohio: Power out across two-thirds of state, about 1 million homes and businesses without electricity, and one storm-related death reported. Governor John Kasich said power could take a week to be restored fully.
– New Jersey: Atlantic County declared a state of emergency, and at least 206,000 customers were without power. Two cousins ages 2 and 7 were killed by a falling tree in state park.
– District of Columbia: 67,000 power customers affected. State of emergency declared.
– Pennsylvania: 32,500 homes and businesses without power.
– Indiana: 135,000 customers with power lost.
– Kentucky: 187 customers without power.
– North Carolina: 618 homes and businesses with power lost.
The storm also knocked out Amtrak passenger rail service between Washington and Philadelphia, Amtrak said in a statement.
