Many areas of the U.S. were sweltering on Wednesday, while many Mid-Atlantic residents are still without power and air conditioning after a recent storm. NBC's John Yang reports.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
The Mid-Atlantic region was struggling to get back to normal Thursday morning after deadly, power-cutting storms and sweltering heat slammed the region over the last week. At least 250,000 people remained without power early Thursday.
Utility and municipal crews worked through the July 4th holiday to restore power and remove downed tree limbs. Officials blamed the storms for 26 deaths.
More than 2 million people at one point lost power from the storms that converged on Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., Indiana, Ohio and New Jersey on Friday. They packed winds topping 70 mph in some places, uprooting trees and damaging homes.
Much of the damage to the power grid was blamed on last weekend's rare "derecho," a big, powerful and long-lasting wind storm that blew from the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean.
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Pepco said it had restored power to 90 percent of those affected by last week's storms in D.C. and two Maryland suburbs, beating its own estimate for getting the lights and more importantly, the air conditioning back on. BGE said about 78,000 customers in central Maryland remained without power.
More than 146,000 Virginia homes and businesses remained without power after, down from a peak of about 1.2 million after the storms.
In New Jersey, Atlantic City Electric said nearly 30,000 homes and businesses were still without service. That's down from about 206,000.
The Weather Channel's Kelly Cass takes a look at the national forecast.
While the number without power was diminishing Thursday utilities were not moving quickly enough for many of those still in the sweltering dark.
Many expressed frustration with handwritten messages hung from utility poles resembling "Wanted" posters, The Washington Post reported.
Along Route 29 in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Wednesday, a woman hammered a series of signs into non-functioning utility pole reading: "5 Days No Lite."
No easy fix for eastern US storm power outages as heat wave persists
"Pepco: very warm humans feeling forgotten," read another sign, according to the paper.
Maryland issued a heat advisory for the entire state for Thursday, after issuing one for parts of the state for Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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