NY: The massive storms which swept across the Eastern U.S caused the deaths of two young cousins camping with their families in New Jersey after a tree fell on their tent.
The state Department of Environmental Protection said the two boys, ages two and seven, were killed early Saturday at Parvin State Park in southwestern New Jersey's Salem County.
Authorities said the boys' families had been camping at adjacent sites when the storm hit and to be safer the families decided to huddle together in one tent.
The heavy winds and rains from the storm snapped a pine tree, which then fell on the families' tent, killing the two young boys.
This accident came as millions across the mid-Atlantic region sweltered Saturday in the aftermath of violent storms that pummeled the eastern U.S. with high winds and downed trees, killing at least 13 people and leaving 3 million without power during a triple-digit heat wave.
The storm that whipped through the region Friday night was called a derecho (duh-RAY'-choh) , a straight line wind system that sweeps over a large area at high speed.
The storm, which packed wind gusts of up to 90 mph, began in the Midwest, passed over the Appalachian Mountains and then drew new strength from a high pressure system as it hit the southeastern U.S., said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
'It's one of those storms,' Jackson said. 'It just plows through.'
Power officials said the outages wouldn't be repaired for several days to a week, likening the damage to a serious hurricane.
Emergencies were declared in Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, the District of Columbia and Virginia, where Governor Bob McDonnell said the state had its largest non-hurricane outage in history, as more storms threatened.
'This is a very dangerous situation,' said the governor.
In some Virginia suburbs of Washington, emergency 911 call centers were out of service and residents were told to call local police and fire departments.
Huge trees fell across streets in Washington, leaving cars crunched up next to them, and onto the fairway at the AT&T National golf tournament in Maryland.
Cell phone and Internet service was spotty, gas stations shut down and residents were urged to conserve water until sewage plants returned to power.
The outages were especially dangerous because they left the region without air conditioning in an oppressive heat.
Temperatures soared to highs in the mid-90s in Baltimore and Washington, where it had hit 104 on Friday.
'I've called everybody except for the state police to try to get power going,' said Karen Fryer, resident services director at two assisted living facilities in Washington.
The facilities had generator power, but needed to go out for portable air conditioning units, and Fryer worried about a few of her 100 residents who needed backup power for portable oxygen.
More than 200 miles away in Morgantown, West Virginia, Jeff and Alice Haney loaded their cart at Lowe's with cases of water, extra flashlights and batteries, and wiring for the generator they hoped would be enough to kick-start their air conditioner.
Even if they had to live without cool air, the family had a backup plan.
'We have a pool,' said Jeff Haney, 'so we'll be OK.'
The storm did damage from Indiana to New Jersey, although the bulk of it was in West Virginia, Washington and suburban Virginia and Maryland.
At least six of the dead were killed in Virginia, including a 90-year-old woman asleep in bed when a tree slammed into her home. Two were killed in Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky and one in Washington.
Utility officials said it could take at least several days to restore power to all customers because of the sheer magnitude of the outages and the destruction. Winds and toppled trees brought down entire power lines, and debris has to be cleared from power stations and other structures.
'This is very unfortunate timing,' said Myra Oppel, a spokeswoman for Pepco, which reported over 400,000 outages in Washington and its suburbs.
'We do understand the hardship that this brings, especially with the heat as intense at is. We will be working around the clock until we get the last customer on.'
Especially at risk were children, the sick and the elderly. In Charleston, West Virginia, firefighters helped several people using walkers and wheelchairs get to emergency shelters.
One of them, David Gunnoe, uses a wheelchair and had to spend the night in the community room of his apartment complex because the power — and his elevator — went out. Rescuers went up five floors to retrieve his medication.
Gunnoe said he was grateful for the air conditioning, but hoped power would be restored so he could go home.
'It doesn't matter if it's under a rock some place. When you get used to a place, it's home,' he said.
More than 20 elderly residents at an apartment home in Indianapolis were displaced when the facility lost power due to a downed tree. Most were bused to a Red Cross facility to spend the night, and others who depend on oxygen assistance were given other accommodations, the fire department said.
Others sought refuge in shopping malls, movie theaters and other places where the air conditioning would be turned to 'high.'
In Richmond, Virginia, Tracey Phalen relaxed with her teenage son under the shade of a coffee-house umbrella rather than suffer through the stifling heat of her house, which lost power.
'We'll probably go to a movie theater at the top of the day,' she said.
Phalen said Hurricane Irene left her home dark for six days last summer, 'and this is reminiscent of that,' she said.
Others scheduled impromptu 'staycations' or took shelter with friends and relatives.
At the AT&T National in Bethesda, Maryland, trees cracked at their trunks crashed onto the 14th hole and onto ropes that had lined the fairways.
The third round of play was suspended for several hours Saturday and was closed to volunteers and spectators.
Mark Russell, the PGA Tour's vice president of rules and competition, couldn't remember another time that a tour event was closed to fans.
'It's too dangerous out here,' Russell said. 'There's a lot of huge limbs. There's a lot of debris. It's like a tornado came through here. It's just not safe.'
The outages disrupted service for many subscribers to Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest when the storm cut power to some of Amazon Inc.'s operations.
The video and photo sharing services took to Twitter and Facebook to update subscribers on the outages. Netflix and Pinterest had restored service by Saturday afternoon.
On Friday, the nation's capital reached 104 degrees - topping a record of 101 set in 1934. Temperatures also soared to 118 degrees in Norton Dam, Kansas, an all-time high.
More than 20 elderly residents at an apartment home in Indianapolis were displaced when the facility lost power due to a downed tree.
Most were bused to a Red Cross facility to spend the night, and others who depend on oxygen assistance were given other accommodations, the fire department said.
West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency after more than 500,000 customers in 27 counties were left without electricity.
At least four utility poles fell on a road in Columbus, Ohio, making it too dangerous for people in four cars to get out, police said. One person was taken to a hospital.
Amtrak suspended its service from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia due to the storms, at least until mid-morning. In the Washington, D.C., area, the Metrorail subway trains were returned to their endpoints due to the storms and related damage, officials said.
'It has had a widespread effect on the region,' Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said early Saturday. He said about 17 train stations were operating on backup power due to local power outages, but that he didn't anticipate service being disrupted on Saturday.
The fierce heat had spread east from the central U.S., where temperatures continued to rewrite record books.
Many areas of the country have suffered days of high temperatures and little rain, which have contributed to deadly and destructive fires in Colorado.
The temperature in Nashville on Friday reached 109 degrees, smashing a record high for the city of 107 degrees reached on July 27 and July 28, 1952.
The entire state of Arkansas is in a drought, and many fireworks displays had been canceled for the week of the July 4 for fear of fire.
Agriculture experts said cattle, fish and chickens through the state have died as a result of the heat.
In Indiana, where temperatures topped 100 this week, state health officials logged 46 heat-related complaints on Thursday, according to USA Today.
The state averages 62 heat-related hospital visits per week in late June and early July.
'We encourage people who don't have air conditioning to retreat to public areas, libraries, shopping malls, swimming pools or other areas that are cool to allow them to protect themselves,' Indiana State Health Commissioner Gregory Larkin told the newspaper.
Doctors in Jackson, Mississippi, have seen the number of patients presenting with heat-related symptoms double since temperatures soared to 100 degrees on Friday.
