Large swaths of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic dug out Saturday hours after killer thunderstorms barreled through, a recovery made more complicated -- and dangerous -- by intense summer heat.
At least 12 people, from Ohio to New Jersey, were killed as a result of downed trees and power lines. The destruction prompted the governors of Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio to declare states of emergency, with Maryland indicating it would do the same.
"This is on par with Hurricane Irene," said Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, referring to last year's storm that was blamed for at least 20 deaths across eight states.
Neighboring Virginia was particularly hard hit, with six deaths. At one point, the Old Dominion State had about 1 million power outages -- more than any other state and, according to its governor, the most caused by any weather event that wasn't a hurricane.
"This is not a one-day situation; it is a multi-day challenge," Gov. Bob McDonnell said.
Joseph Rigby, president of the electric company Pepco, said it could be a week before power is back up in some areas of Washington.
"Given the damage, you can understand this is going to take some time," he said. "The wild card is the weather."
The storms raced east Friday and into Saturday from Indiana through Ohio and into West Virginia and the nation's capital, carrying winds gusting as strong as 80 miles per hour.
They left behind hundreds of downed power lines and trees that littered roads and damaged homes.
"This was a storm that obviously came upon us very quickly, without a great deal of notice, and the devastation that was caused is very significant," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said, noting there's a particular need for fuel, generators and communications equipment in light of the storms.
Nearly 4 million people were without power across the affected states at one point Saturday, a number that dropped by the end of the night to around 3 million.
Those killed included two cousins in New Jersey, ages 2 and 7, who'd huddled with their families in a tent in Parvin State Park when strong winds felled a pine tree, crushing them. Their relatives all survived relatively unscathed, said Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection.
Record heat, storms bring despair, 'horror'
A 30-year-old Kentucky man driving in Clark County late Friday came across downed limbs. When Michael Martin left his vehicle to clear the road, county coroner Robert Gayheart said, a tree fell, killing him.
In Washington, where 19 intersections were without working traffic lights at one point Saturday, a couple was electrocuted after they went outside to check on downed power lines. The husband was killed while the wife -- who is in critical condition at a local hospital with burns -- is expected to survive, said police spokesman Araz Alali.
The storm affected Amtrak service, including shutting down service between Washington and Philadelphia on Saturday morning. But those most inconvenienced were aboard a train that left New York early Friday morning ended up grinding to a halt at 11 p.m. that night in Prince, West Virginia, after trees blocked tracks both in front of and behind it, Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said.
Finally by 8:20 p.m. Saturday, the 232 passengers -- who'd stayed aboard the Chicago-bound train, which had air conditioning and food -- had been taken off and put on buses so they could reach their final destinations, according to Kulm.
CSX, which is clearing the debris from the tracks, on Saturday night was "working as hard as we can to get service restored on our lines," company spokesman Bob Sullivan said.
5 tips to survive extreme heat
The storm's fury was felt online, as well, when digital clouds were knocked out by real ones. Power outages temporarily knocked out some Amazon Cloud services in Virginia, taking down sites that rely on them, including Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram.
The aftermath of the storm was compounded by a forecast of another sweltering summer day.
Without power? Share your photos, videos, stories with CNN iReport, but please stay safe
One in three Americans baked Saturday in an area of nearly 600,000 square miles experiencing unusually hot weather. That included record-breaking conditions in many locales, with temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit dangerously common.
Excessive heat warnings were issued in 14 states, indicating dangerous conditions for those unable to find refuge in a cool locale. And while there may be some cooling in some spots early next week, temperatures still are expected to remain at least in the 90s.
In storm-affected areas, many people had no electricity to run fans, air-conditioning and refrigerators.
Emergency rooms in Prince George's County, Maryland, filled up Saturday by people looking to escape the heat, said Fran Phillips, deputy secretary for the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She noted that libraries and community centers across the state would stay open late, to act as cooling center.
And at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, just north of Washington, third round play of the AT&T National was delayed as trees and tents came crashing down and the PGA venue was left without power.
5 tips to survive extreme heat
By Saturday afternoon, the course was eerily quiet -- still closed to fans and volunteers -- even after play resumed.
Even in places where power was not disrupted, people with no air-conditioning were advised to spend the day in a library, a cooling center or some other such place to avoid heat exhaustion.
The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention was among many government agencies trying to keep people informed -- from knowing when the food in your suddenly inoperable freezer can't be eaten to taking a cool bath if you don't have AC.
WCSC: New weather bug system could keep carriage horses healthy
The Jackson County medical examiner in western Missouri, for instance, was investigating three deaths that may be related to the heat, according to the Kansas City Health Department.
"Current indications are that this heat wave will continue well into next week, though there is still some uncertainty in the forecast," the National Weather Service said in its warning around St. Louis. "The effects of excessive heat are cumulative... Take action to protect your health."
Will 2012 be the hottest summer on record?
Sauce.
I know this is technically late since the post was made June 30th, but some people are still without power, have only just gotten it back, or are otherwise dealing with repercussions. Since I haven't seen anything else, and a bunch of folk I know have been affected (and some have talked about it on Shenanigans) I figured it would be worthwhile to post, if only for folks to have space to vent and swap knowledge.
As far as tags, I tagged with the general weather tag and states I know that were affected. If I should add or remove anything else, let me know. I didn't add hurricane because while people are referring to it as a land hurricane, that's technically incorrect. I can add if folks want though!
There was a glass table up on the top part of the deck, so that's completely busted and there's broken glass everywhere and it's been tracked all through the house (there's a basement entrance right there). Really sucks.
I work at Lowe's and we sold out of generators within 10 minutes of opening on Saturday. People were camped out outside the store at 5:30 in the morning. It was nuts. I thought they were going to riot when we sold out. Scary stuff.
Edited at 2012-07-08 02:25 pm (UTC)
I'm not surprised. When we had a nasty storm up here in the PNW in January, we had trouble getting ahold of firewood and basic supplies. The roads were so packed with snow and ice that delivery trucks couldn't get in so there was no resupply once everything was sold out, and from what my housemate said, it was nasty in the stores. (We had no money for anything like a generator but heard they were sold out pretty immediately too.)
Some years ago when I was living in MA a transformer blew in our town and so we were out of power for three days when the temp was 105 and 90% humidity. I cannot fucking imagine being without power in anything like that for a full week, good gods. D:
BUT IT'S REALLY A MYTH, TRULY, OMG, AL GORE MADE IT ALL UP.
-_-
"In the last four years, Pepco has actually paid a negative 39.5 percent corporate tax rate"
God damn.
I saw a giant oak ripped out of the ground by its root system, then landed on a house, cutting it in half. Thankfully, a sign posted to the railing said that everyone got out okay.
Downed oak
Downed oak
Right across the street from the oak
Edited at 2012-07-08 03:51 pm (UTC)
I mean, the wind started picking up, we lost power (which isn't uncommon when a nasty storm blows through this area, as we're out in the county) and were watching the wind pick up more and the sky get darker. It looked like it was going to be your typical, blustery, noisy storm.
And then, about five minutes in, there was this stretch of time that I honestly don't think was longer than maybe two minutes at the absolute most. And it sounded like the Nothing from The Neverending Story. And it was that nastiest, loudest, most crunching sound full of things being ripped apart and the wind screaming and howling in ways that you thought were only for horror stories that I have ever heard in my life, and I have been in a car that was picked up by a tornado.
And then it was over. Oh, the sky was still a nasty shade of what I call 'tornado yellow', that sickly shade of green/yellow/orange that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. But there was only a light breeze, and about ten minutes later, moderate rain. However, there was no power, a road full of cars looking for a place to get food, and trees down everywhere. Most of those trees (at least on the roads around our house) were cleared by locals with chainsaws. They were out there clearing them within minutes, and got the backroads cleared for emergency vehicles by the time said vehicles got there. There was at least one lady standing the pouring rain, directing traffic around her neighbours while they cleared this massive trunk out of the road.
The Huntington Mall and the area around it kept power through pretty much the whole thing, so they were packed. I mean, there was a line that wrapped around the McDonald's that started Friday evening, and it was still there by 4 in the morning on Saturday. The gas stations off of I-64 at the mall had lines all weekend that backed clear onto the off-ramps.
Thank fuck that she did, because by around noon on Saturday, there wasn't a hotel room between Lexington KY and Charleston WV open. We crammed 5 people into a two bedroom room, and I suspect we weren't the only ones and that the hotel was looking the other way. (Smallest wound up making a pillow nest tucked up under the shelf sink, once she was done hugging the AC unit.) All in all, it could have been much worse. We're fine, house is fine, vehicles and animals are fine, and a serious thank you to the comm member that mentioned the SNAP replacement, because I never would have known otherwise.
We had power outages where I am this week as well(different storm and 'only' a few hundred thousand people without power) and I nearly got clipped a couple of times by people who blew through intersections.
I'd be batshit by now if it were me.
My power was out until Wednesday evening. My mom got hers back on Saturday, then lost it again Tuesday for another day when a cement truck hit a pole.
I live in a trailer park and there were maybe 10 trees down inside, luckily all of them were small enough to not do a ton of damage. I remember when it hit being glad I was the only person home, because I thought for sure the wind was about to turn into a tornado. Large branches were blowing down the street like they were nothing.
Keeping everyone in these times in my thoughts!
My brother was driving home and said he saw a funnel touch down beside him at a light. He was driving up to his complex (a hilly wooded area) and said trees were falling down right beside him as he drove. He called me to make sure I was ok and I have NEVER heard him sound so afraid. He's the type that just doesn't get afraid and that scared me more than anything.
I was in Target at the time so I really couldn't see the damage as it happened but I was glad I was there. My mom had called me telling me not to go outside and said a tree had hit our sunroom porch. Well, turns out THREE trees had come down, one hitting 2 others and another three is going to come down sooner or later.
Turns out a big tree was blocking the way up to my house so I had to go through two hollows to finally get back home.
My power was out for 4 days, which is fucking rough for someone that relies on a BiPAP machine to breathe at night. I holed up in my Grandma's office and then my aunt's house until ours came back.
/noscientificdata
Sorry to intellectualize. I'm glad so few died given the damage I've seen. Now there's the cost of replacing spoiled food...
Nowadays, I can't really handle heat because of my health issues; they're worsened by heat, and I get dizzy and nauseated. I basically get heat sickness symptoms at about 80-85 degrees.
Ugh. I hate this.
We've still got downed tree limbs, too.
My best friend lives in Annapolis and she and her husband lost power on the night of the storm. They spent that Friday night, all of Saturday, and up until Sunday evening boiling inside their house. I visited them on July 4th and the power turned off for a few minutes as well.
we still don't have internet or cable (i've been hopping on my neighbor's unsecured wifi occasionally because it's so boring, shhh) but as long as i'm not on the way to full-blown heatstroke, i'm happy. i hope you guys are all doing well after the super derecho!
I never understand the point of building cables overground when you KNOW the weather is going to be erratic.
Whatever I did to you nature, I AM SORRY, PLEASE STOP.
So not only did she lose power again, but the only road in or out of their development was scorched with a live power line laying across it O.o
Luckily no one was injured and the power was down for a short enough time that her kids spent most of the time w/o power in their pool.