this morning. you can log on to nbcwashington.com. we are dealing with some storm damage this morning. a lot of people waking up without power. lots of down tree limbs as well. everyone be on the lookout. we are in for another hot day. i'm richard jordan. >> i'm erica gonzalez in for angie goff. we'll be going until 10:30 this morning. so stay with us for that. we're talking about this massive

storm that seemed to blow in out of nowhere. our meteorologists were tracking it from chicago yesterday, in a matter of a couple of hours it came into our area and caused deadly destruction. >> the winds were up to 70 miles per hour. that's hurricane force winds that blew across the area and really no one was unaffected. just about every single part of the region was covered at some point. there were two deaths associated with this storm. a woman died after a tree fell on to her home. that was over in falls church, there was also a driver in west springfield that died after a tree crushed a car there. >> in prince jornl george's coue winds ripped off the roof from apartments in riverdale displacing hundreds of residents. in d.c. downed power lines sparked a car fire sending two to the hospital. it all came after a day of record breaking heat across the region. just sweltering heat. and that has kickstarted the

outages. then the violent weather came in leaving in about 2 million people without power in the middle of a heat wave. right now pepco has more than 420,000 people without power, dominion reporting 450,000, bge, 12,500. the numbers just keep rolling in. potomac edison 50,000, smeco, about 45200 this morning and novec has 40,000 without power. >> the power companies want you to let them know. we'll be giving you the phone numbers for to you call and let them know there's an outage. they say be patient, they've got a lot of ground to cover. >> this really was a worst case situation for a summertime type of an event. we're talking about the fact that we could see scattered strong to possibly severe storms later today. not going to be as wide spread

as yesterday, but know that there is that possibility of getting some storms around the area. 73 degrees. our wind out of the north at 7 miles per hour. not helping a bit, that wind because it's so humid. with high humidity and high heat today temperature expected to get up to 100 degrees. for several hours our heat index will be up around 110. every county there shaded in pink, montgomery county, howard county, baltimore county, over to loudoun county and down toward the south. these areas under an excessive heat warning from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. make sure you hydrate and stay out of the heat unless you have to be out there. the line of storms that came through here yesterday long gone. that was a derecho. had that big bow shape to it. we saw it on radar early yesterday, tom did. and it was just east of chicago. it held together quite well. we got those strong downbursts out of it, those strong winds that do so much destruction.

of course they were up around 78, 80 miles an hour. now a new area, new batch of storms moving through western and central ohio from cleveland down to cincinnati. notice that they don't have that same bow shape to them. but as they make their way east and southeast, they could definitely make their way over the mountains and have an effect on our area during the afternoon. i think by the time they get here, they are not going to be providing us with any widespread damage as was the case yesterday, but we could see isolated reports from mainly wind damage later on today. as far as later today, the timing of the storms starting about 5:00, again getting up to 110 degrees, the heat index. >> all right, veronica johnson, thanks so much. we'll check in with you in a couple minutes. >> the storms rip through our area. falling trees killed two people. and a lot of those downed trees are blocking roadways almost everywhere you go.

thousands are without power. julie carey is live in falls church. >> reporter: good morning again, guys. well, this is the scene that not hundreds but thousands of people in northern virginia are waking up to this morning. just an absolute mess. we are on columbia street in falls church. and this is what you see repeated block after block after block. lots of folks up and about this morning coming down the street to tell me , did you see this? did you see that? the car was just about spared. might be a few scratches on that one, but at least it wasn't caved in. joining me to talk about the damage to his house, jim henessey. you say this came through last night. what was the family doing and what do you recall hearing, seeing? >> well, some of us were asleep. and some of us were just going to bed. and of course, the storm was pretty strong and a lot of noise. so everybody woke up. >> reporter: and did you take

cover or did you just ride it out on the first floor? >> all right. we seem to have lost our connection there with julie carey. we'll get back to her with more information over in falls church as soon as we're able to get that signal back up. but keep in mind a lot of trees down there as well as in other areas. you do want to be cautious this morning. >> i'll pick up right where you left off. downed trees and power lines are causing some of the worst problems for homeowners and drivers in maryland as well. our team coverage continue this morning with chris gordon who joins us from bethesda. can you hear us? >> reporter: good morning, richard, good morning, erica. we're on fairmont avenue, behind me foong lin restaurant, you see it took a direct hit. there were shards of glass at 6:00 but it has all been cleaned up by the local bethesda community group getting the area ready for a farmers market today. you can see they still cordoned

off this sidewalk, this area. we also took a ride since we were last with you an hour ago, up old georgetown. we want to show you the video. because this happened. police are on the scene. northbound lane on old georgetown. that's just south of huntington parkway. and what you have is a massive tree. came by there last night and told me that the tree was on fire, and this is creating the power outageroughout old georgetown road, bethesda, cedar lane, this whole area up to the beltway from downtown bethesda up to the beltway. police are on the scene directing traffic. there are flares in the roadway. there are wires intertwined with the tree. and police have been on the scene all night long. we talked to arn orr who is a

grandfather staying with his 15-year-old twins and he told us what happened here. >> i would think it would be about 10:30. i'd already gone to bed. and i heard all this awful noise, this rumbling. and i said, what the heck is going on? and then there's a loud boom! and i said, oh, my god, that lightning has hit something close. and i knew it was very close. and then this morning i look up, and there's that tree. and pepco had been here for several times cutting down the trees. >> reporter: limbs. >> limbs. >> reporter: pepco has been preparing the area. we've been doing stories about that, pepco cutting back limbs. but the force was so great that trees that weren't even hanging over power lines got knocked over. this one split. and i've had people come up to me -- and this is a question for

veronica johnson. and people ask me, did we have a tornado. i said there's been no official word sh no indication of that. but what you do see behind me bethesda is coming up and just like you heard in virginia, people are saying, what's going on, what do you know? and we have dogs on the street and people walking their dogs, and this one -- i just want to show you. sit down, sit. there you go. he's got a redskins collar on. come on over here. what are you doing up this early and what kind of damage if any did you suffer? >> the power's out, but no other damage than that. he gets me up early every day to take a walk. >> reporter: what's his name? >> abbie, like abbie hoffman. he's a boy abbie. >> reporter: what's your name? >> greg. >> reporter: appreciate it. 400 people in montgomery county and maryland without power. pepco is trying to locate the

problem so they can get you back online. we'll monitor it for you and try to tell you when you might expect that. in this area, i mentioned there there be a farmers market. we have a world class golf tournament going on in bethesda at congressional country club, the at&t national. we'll let you know how that's doing because right about this time they should be teeing off. that's it from bethesda. back to you in the studio. >> all right. thanks so much, chris gordon. meanwhile, richard, some of the worst storm damage in prince jornls county can be found at an apartment building in riverdale. jackie bensen reports hundreds are still out of their homes this morning. >> reporter: residents from the seven-story apartment building on riverdale road say it happened very fast and very unexpectedly as the storm's winds slammed into prince george's county, the roof blew off. >> i was in the house. all you heard was a big boom. the windows were shattering and

the lights start flickering. from there you hear people screaming in the hallways. >> i was in the site with his house. ta all the chaos. >> reporter: this is at the park tanglewood apartments. this is part of the roof. this is why everyone had to come out of here tonight because the roof was literally sheared off a good section of the building. prince george's fire chief notes the damaging storm came exactly one week after vicious weather caused similar damage in the bladensburg area. >> in this case it's a multi-story, multi-family building, between thisble and the building next door which lost part of the roofing material. it wasn't lost the structure, didn't appear to. we have building inspectors en route. we have an evacuation set up down the street at the riverdale

elementary school. >> jackie bensen, news 4 today. some of you are under water restrictions this morning. >> the sanitary commission joins us on the phone. good morning. >> good morning. >> how are you doing today? >> we're doing okay. we're doing everything we can to bring our plants back online. late last night, the storms walked out power to our water filtration plants at paw tuckent and potomac. water use has been high, the highest so far this year. normally we're able to refill the system overnight, but we weren't able to do that last night because of the power outage. we're working to restore power now. once we get power back, it will be a few hours for us to get the system going the way it ought to be approximately until then,

we're asking people -- there are actually mandatory water restrictions. no outside use of water, no topping off of pools, washing the car, et cetera. please limit indoor use of water, postpone using the dishwasher or washing clothes and use water as sparingly as you can because we're trying to maintain the fire fighting capability and keep water going to as many customers as we can, but we do need everyone -- it's impertive that people cut back on their water usage so we can make it through. it will be hot today and probably the next couple of days and it will take some work to get everything up and running again. >> i.j. hudson with that important information reminding people that we're on a boil water notice -- >> no, no, no. >> excuse me, mandatory water restriction. >> mandatory water restrictions. you can say that that if people don't conserve, it may move us

to a boil water advisory later, but we're hoping not. people should conserve. >> this is for everyone. >> all commercial and residential customers of wsse, montgomery and prince george's counties. >> we appreciate your time this morning. >> thanks a lot. foeb it's 7:14 this morning. >> we'll take a look at the damage in the district where strong winds, uprooted trees left a mess.

good morning, everyone. many of you have captured some of the most impressive pictures. >> kim martucci is here with a look at those. >> they keep coming in. good morning, everybody. be sure to include your name and what we're looking at, too, and

where the picture is taken when you send them in to me. i'll get them up on the air. pictures from reston all the way to waldorf. our first picture is pretty much what you see. bye-bye, gazebo. this from the jackson family in ashburn in the backyard. then this from manuel, a tree just hitting a car. so many of these pictures coming in. this is a backyard mess in karen in clifton. you can see the trampoline behind all the branches there. then another tree down up in jefferson, maryland. hearts go out to you guys. send us your damage pictures to weather@nbcwashington.com. you can tweet me if you like, i'm weather kim. and include the deets. we want to share the details. >> the massive power outages are forcing a number of closures today.

>> montgomery college in maryland is closed because the campus does not have power this morning. >> that's right. all campuses of northern virginia community college will also be closed today because they are also without power. >> the medtech institute in silver spring is closed. >> as well as paw tuxent research refuge. and we'll keep you updated. i just saw this on twitter. in the interests of safety for our fans and volunteers, the # att national is closed to fans and volunteers. we'll get more information from them as this developed. >> if you have any commitments, anything that was planned, you might want to ca ahead to make sure that places are open and they have wer. a lot of people are without power. so that's what's prompting the closures. the time is 7:18. >> we check out the damage in ohio and chicago coming up.

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the storms have knocked out power to hundreds of thousands around our region including in southern maryland. >> later the spokesperson for

smeco is with us now. what is the situation on your end? we don't have joe right now. we can tell you at last check they had about 41,900 smeco customers without power. >> and the one thing they are advising us is do not assume that these power companies know that youer president jot down these nbs and let them know that you are one of the people affected in the area. as we continue this morning talking about power outages, it was the sweltering heat that had already kickstarted those out ajs. then the violent weather came in leaving 2 million people without power in the middle of the heat wave. right now pepco 420,000, dominion 450,000, bge, more and more, 200,000, potomac edison, 50,000, smeco 45,200, then novec

28,000 without power this morning. >> at one point about a million people had lost power. we've been able to get joe slater back on the line for us. tell us what's going on in your end. >> good morning. well, we're dealing with quite a mess down here this morning. high winds clocked at 75 miles per hour. it resulted with the maximum about 60,000 outages by 2:00

this morning. 40,000. and we got additional crews coming in. we're optimistic that we're going to be able to get a lot of customers back on today, but we do expect this to be a multiple day outage. we do appreciate our customers' patients in working with us through this particular event. >> 40,000 you are saying there. what is the biggest suggestion that you can tell customers this morning? >> the biggest what? i apologize. >> the biggest suggestion for people who are dealing with power outages? >> certainly the thing to do is call the number you just gave our customers. we appreciate you broadcasting that. make sure we have their outage recorded in our system. so we can be aware where we need to focus our priorities. don't rely on your neighbor calling, please call in yourself. the only other thing we can do

sen courage anyone that relies on any kind of medical equipment that is supported by electrical current, that they look for alternative locations to set up that equipment, friends, family, what have you, that do have power, about 60%, 70% of our customers do have power. that can help them out and paurt that type of equipment, that's appreciated. do whatever is necessary to try to stay cool. but today it will be very difficult. it will be 100 degree, i understand. it will complicate an otherwise unpleasant situation. >> a great recommendation. please check on the elderly. if you know that there are people that live in your neighborhood that have some type of extreme medical condition, please go and check on those folks. >> that's right. we aren't the only ones dealing with storm damage this morning. the dayton mall in ohio had to be evacuated after strong winds damaged a building there.

investigators say a gust of wind knocked down a structural wall at a dick's sporting goods in the mall. the mall has been closed until further notice. national weather service said they recorded winds at 80 miles an hour near the dayton national airport. >> and the lights are also back onned a midway airport in chicago. a power outage caused the runway lights to shut down. they had to divert flights. 85 flights were affected leaving dozens stranded for hours. the airport reopened around 1:00 this morning. we mentioned ohio, we mentioned chicago. we had that one gentleman speaking with chris gordon who said i had my brother call me and say, i think it's coming your way. that's exactly the path. >> holding together very well. today we're talking about scattered, possibly isolated to severe storms. but so many big cities across the eastern half of the nation

had that extreme heat yesterday. a lot of cities that eclipsed 100. columbia, south carolina, was one of them. here we go again today. high heat through the eastern half of the nation. let's talk about the winds from yesterday. hurricane force winds that came through this area. anything over 74-miles per hour mary winds, that's hurricane forc force. 79 in reston, virginia. 77 swan point. we had a tremendous amount of lightning that seemed to just last and last for more than what you would get from a typical thunderstorm. and the rainfall, well, that we didn't get a lot of. we had between a quarter and a half inch of rain because this was a fast moving line. winchester, manassas, reston, all a half inch of rain from this system. our deficit still at 6 1/2 inches, 6 1/2-inch deficit still

for the year. we need the rain, just don't like getting it with these type of fierce storms. 10:00 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 clm, 10 clm, 89 degrees the temperature. by 2:00 p.m., your temperature at 98. we'll hit that high mark early on again today and we'll stay there for several hours. take a look at 6:00 p.m. at 96. we could be looking at more storms moving through our area. here's the batch i'm watching. cleveland down to cincinnati all moving east and southeast. that will be anywhere after 5:00 and up to 11. your heat index around 110 degrees. that excessive heat warning stays with us until 9:00 p.m. the storms hit again. there's your snapshot around 5:00 p.m. as far as the four-day forecast, got to get through the weekend. that's our heat wave. the extreme temperatures, 99 to 100 for saturday and sunday.

we cool it off to the low 90s next week with a chance of showers and storms. >> those 90s are looking good. >> who would think. >> thanks. the time right now is 7:29. good morning. >> coming up in our next half hour, we'll continue our storm damage coverage. a look at the deadly destruction over in fairfax county. >> plus we are also in d.c. where strong winds set other debris into the streets. our coverage continues. [ male announcer ] it would be easy for u.s. olympian meb keflezighi

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♪ but when it's this easy to use citibank mobile check deposit at home...why would he? ♪ woooo! [ male announcer ] citibank mobile check deposit. easier banking. every step of the way. this morning nearly 2 million people are waking up without power as we brace for yet another hot day. the deadly storms move through the region uprooting trees, sending them crashing on homes, businesses, streets.

we have live team coverage. if you have tried to get some place this morning and have probably run into huge, huge encounters with tree limbs, branchs, trees altogether, good morning. welcome to the special edition of news 4 today. i'm erika gonzalez in for angie goff. >> i'm richard jordan. we're preempting "weekend today" to share with you the storm damage. >> marylanders are waking up to a mess. many are trying to find a cool place to ride out the power outages. we're getting an update on a big golf tournament going on this weekend. you know what i'm talking about. chris gordon with more on the at&t national. good morning. >> reporter: erika, richard, good morning to you. we're trying to update as we come to you live throughout the morning, not just repeat what happened overnight. everybody is in the same boat with the same experience. bethesda is waking up.

we want to show you some video tasty diner just a few minutes ago, a long line out the door. we had said earlier it's one of the few places that you can get breakfast, it's open. listen to some of the people in the line, what they had to say. why did you come here this morning? why did you wait in line? >> we have no power at home and no coffee. and we know tasty diner and it's a good place to go. >> reporter: how about you? >> i'm hungry. need some food. >> reporter: what's the situation at home? >> no power. the street was open. the two streets next to us was blocked by branches. >> reporter: sir? >> i've got to kill three hours. i'm working the at&t national and they got delayed. we're not allowed to show up. >> reporter: the golf tournament was delayed. >> i was supposed to check in at 6:30 this morning. we're not allowed to show up till 10:00. >> a lot of the businesses are

closed. this one just opened up. >> reporter: you're ready to wait in line as long as it takes? >> yeah. >> reporter: people have seemingly still maintaining their sense of humor about the situation. so many of us, tens and hundreds of us are facing without power. now, as far as the at&t national golf tournament at congressional country club here in bethesda, that is not an official word. i am going to call and update you. but what that volunteer said is that they have been put in a delay for a three-hour delay for the volunteers to report until 10:30. that usually on a saturday and a sunday the field will start early in the day. we'll let you know if you have tickets if you are planning to go what the schedule is officially, but the earliest indication we got from that young volunteer is that there is a three-hour delay on the at&t national.

erika and richard, back to you now. >> we want to give you updated information from at&t national. this is the latest they are tweeting. we're retweeting these as they come in to you our news office. they'll honor all of the saturday tickets on sunday. at this time it is unknown if the competition will even take place today. but what they are asking is that it is closed to spectators as well as volunteers in the interests of public safety. at&t national closed to spectators and volunteer. they'll honor today's tickets tomorrow. and we'll be updating you with much more information on that as we continue our broadcast. >> need a day to regroup, that's all. now to fairfax county where two are dead from falling trees the and thousands are waking up without power there. julie carey is live in falls church. how are things looking? >> kind of the quiet before the cleanup. before long here i think we're going to start seeing the tree removal crews come in and the saws start humming, but right

now people are just really out assessing things. we've seen countless people come down columbia street to take a look at all the trees down and tell us where they've seen others. this is the henessey family's house behind us that we've been showing you all morning long. they just came out of the house to take a look. you can see that they fared pretty well. just have a little strip taken off the roof there, but an enormous tree came down in the front yard and buried one of their cars breaking the front windshield. this is the kind of mess that thousands in northern virginia will have to contend with this morning. but as you were mentioning, tragic consequences, two in northern virginia. take a look at the pictures taken overnight. in the springfield area, very hard hit zone over old keen mill road. this is the scene at old keen mill and bower where a 27-year-old man who was driving his car around at the peak of the storm at 11:00, a tree

toppled andell on his car. he's identified as kyet nguyen. then a few blocks away from there near springfield country club on carr place, a tree fell on a home killing an elderly woman inside. so we know of those two fatalities. there have been other injuries but none other to they believe to be life threatening. back here live, we see the city of falls church police driving through with a barricade through their window. they're probably looking for more streets that have to be blocked off. we talked to the homeowner about what it was like here last night when the storms hit hard and when this tree came down in the front yard. >> loud, lots of wind. i thought it was hailing, but i think it was the branches coming -- hitting the house. we came outside and looked, it was hard to see because there was so much rain and wind. i saw the branches, but not

until this morning that i really figured out what -- how much -- you know what the tree entailed. >> reporter: how do you assess the damage? >> i think we're pretty lucky because the car only has a broken windshield. and we lost a little piece of the trim on the house, but other than that, it's just a tree. >> reporter: he's got an awfully good attitude considering that that's what he woke up to this morning. but again cleanup about to get started here. this block, even though there's a power line under that tree, you can't see it looping through there. these guys have power right here, but much of this area in falls church without power. that's the other thing people will have to deal with today. julie carey, news 4. we're joined by veronica johnson. those downed trees are everywhere. >> we were all sharing our stories when we came in this morning. like an obstacle course getting in to work. >> you were saying this is like

hurricane type damage without the hurricane warning. >> right. and without the heavy rain certainly. and without the sustained winds that last long. throughout a good portion of our viewing area. for today we're going to see excessive heat again just like yesterday. for today likely to see some storms again just like yesterday. do i think we're going to get those widespread powerful line of storms? i do not. i think we'll have more scatt scattered and isolated storms. heat index around 110 degrees. for several hours we'll be holding here from early on right before noon right through the evening hours. the day planner going up to 100 degrees, a few clouds, a few storms. we're hot and stormy for 5:00, for 6:00, for 7:00, up until about 11 p.m.

the actual air temperatures, petersburg and cumberland, 97 to 99. where are those storms that are likely to move our way later? currently moving through ohio. so like yesterday, there will be fairly fast movers. >> do you think they'll be as intense? >> i do not. but strong isolated severe. >> thank you, veronica. d.c. didn't dodge the damage caused by the powerful storms as with many summer storms in the past trees are the biggest threat in the district. they're some of the most beautiful attractions to come by. but if you're trying to get to work, you'll find problems. derrick ward joins us with more. >> reporter: we're here in the 200 block of "a" street just adjacent to the eastern market and the flea market that goes along with it. that's breathtaking in and of

itself. but across the street it landed on the front stoop of the house on the other side. but if you take a look up closer, you can see a toyota pickup that was parked at the base of the tree, that car is bent in half, almost broken. we talk to people on the street that say they didn't hear that happen. lots of wind, lots of hail. as a matter of fact, the owner of the truck said the only thing that alerted him to it was the alarm going off. but this scene was repeated all over the city. d.c. is known as the city of trees. this block of eighth street as an interesting and charming canopy to it. it lost a bit of itself with the storm. interestingly enough, this tree didn't have a large root base. it was contained to a tree box. that was taken up when that tree fell over. we've talked to folks who say

they've seen trees that seem to have been pushed down from above. which would suggest a microburst. we can't confirm that. there are other thins that have to go into confirming such a weather phenomena occurring. but a strong intense wind over a brief period. we talked about trees coming down on cars even sinkholes. give you a sense of how devastating and how quick the storm was blowing through here today. a matter of time before they get out here and clear it. eastern market, the flea market is set up. if you are planning to drive down here, ju don't plan on parking in this part of "a" street because it will be blocked for a while. >> thank you so much, derrick. >> a short time ago amtrak announced it suspended service from d.c. to philadelphia until 9:00 this morning because of severe weather.

it didn't clarify what happened to cause this suspended service but amtrak did tweet that it apologizes for any inconvenience fp if you do have travel plans by train, by air, call ahead first to make sure things are running on time. >> still ahead on news 4 today, we take a look at pictures that viewers are sending us. weather@nbcwashington.com. kim martucci wants details, folks. we're continue our storm damage coverage. these are live pictures from bethesda. we've got just about every area covered.

good morning, everyone. many of you have capture ed som of the most amazing pictures and we're sending them to us. >> we've received dozens of storm snapshots. kim martucci has a look at the pictures. >> we're biz ne the weather center and my phone is lighting up with your tweets. thank you for sharing them with us. we'll start off with, what else, the storm damage. our first picture coming to you from -- do, do, do, do, do, do -- oh, that's nice. please tell me i loaded the show

correctly. now i'm a little upset because -- oh -- oh good. the siding is peeling off on the building. mike high at sent this in. this is typical. we've seen a lot of this type of destruction and damage. and so many trees done. oh, my, unfortunately the weather pictures scene is not loaded properly. but i can tell you this that we have the fox chase apartments from down in waldorf and a lot of trees actually crashing through roofs. i'll get those ready for you. do your part and send me your pictures at weather@nbcwashington.com. and you can tweet me @weather kim. we're sorry for this hiccup. we don't want you going into the debris or getting near power lines. please do it safely from a distance. we'll hook you up with pictures.

>> we are getting the pictures but everyone out there knows how it is. this is what happens. >> we'll get to that in a minute. we're till talking triple digit temperatures. no relief from that in sight. at least not today. coming up sh a special

welcome back, everyone. we are looking at all the storm damage caused from last night's big storm. a lot of people are wondering what was that, a tornado? >> trying to evaluate. it was not a tornado because the type of damage that you see with a tornado it looks lying something's been spun around. look over your head, look up and imagine a long line, because that's what this is, by the end it went from philadelphia down to richmond. you can imagine those strong

winds that come rushing out of the convective part of the thunderstorm, right, out of the whole line, so downbursts, straight line winds possible, but they do a lot of damage, these deresh oes. the winds can get up to 100 miles per hour. very rare when we see one move through here. we get one, we average about one every four years for parts of the ohio valley for parts of the plains states, they average one a year. rare for us to see an event like that. we were left with widespread damage and hurricane force windses that did so much damage. as far as today goes, another day of high heat. heat index up to 110. we sit currently in the low 70s, but that's low 70s with high humidity. it is already uncomfortable outside. all these counties shaded in bright pink. the excessive heat warning will go from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. that means the heat index values will be up around 110 degrees

for several hours takes us right through the evening. day planner, 10:00 a.m., very warm, very humid. 89 the temperature. 6:00 p.m. hot and stormy. we're talking about getting more storms in here. check out the temperature around 2:00 p.m. we're in the upper 90s for several hours. one, two, three, 4:00 today maxing out around 100 to 101 sh manassas, warrenton, culpepper, you folks are above 100 in actual air temperature. open it up and notice more storms. these look like the storms that we had come through here yesterday, right? through areas of indiana and illinois. cluster of storms appear to be weakening. but they are taking the same east to northeast track, so we may see isolated severe storms later today.

best timing for that will be after 5:00 and 11:00 p.m. to midnight. again a slight chance for sunday though i think sunday most of our storms will be staying down to the south and west. today's forecast, 96 to 101, yes a chance of storms. high heat. if you don't have ac, maybe you can head over the a strip center or a small to cool off. 100 degrees on saturday. 99 on sunday. feeling up around 110 both days. this excessive heat wave continues through the weekend. our temperatures cool off a bit, low 90s. >> 7:55 is the time. >> coming up, we'll continue our in depth storm coverage. we've got crews out at all parts including right here in

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good morning, everyone. at a time when we are experiencing record heat, nearly 1.5 million people in our area are without power this morning because of these deadly storms. >> joining us now on the phone is pepco spokesman clay anderson. you said 420,000 were without power. what's the latest now? . we've had an uptick in those numbers. good morning, everyone. we're looking at 433,000 customers district of columbia, 60,000 montgomery county, about 228,000 and prince george's

county about 137,000. we do expect this to be an ebb and flow with the numbers as our assessment crews continue to research the area. those numbers will go up and down. but we are tracking the storm totals, and we'll have that information updated as quickly and accurately as possible. >> it's also hard to gauge maybe by what time you will be in certain areas because you've got so many crews out there. let people know about that that you all are out there, but it's going to take some time and an estimate is really hard to gauge right now. >> absolutely. we are in the midst of a multiday outage. that means today, tomorrow, throughout the weekend possibly into early next week. as a result we're telling our customers again always to take a look at downed wires. the number is 1-877-pepco-62. if you have wires wrapped around poles, wires around trees and branchs, that's a safety issue

because they could be energized. those that do need to have those friends and family that have to move to an area that has air conditioning, make those plans today. do not have the expectation that your power will come back on today. it might. but because of the dangerous heat throughout the weekend, pepco is advising our customers to seek alternate locations that have cooling. >> all right, clay, thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. the time right now is 8:00. you're watching continuing coverage here of the storm damage. >> that's right. we'll be on the air until 10:30 this morning. the cleanup, folks that begins as the deadly storm moves through the region leaving huge mess for so many people.

hundreds of thousands. the storm damage is extensive. homes are damaged, trees have been uprooted leaving nearly 2 million people -- the latest estimate is 1.5 million people without power this morning. >> live team coverage from fairfax county and montgomery county. we'll start off with meteorologist veronica johnson because we're expecting a lot of heat today. >> could be looking at more storms today. scattered storms, isolated severe storms. not the widespread beast that came through yesterday. that was really wicked and that was really rare for this area. take a look at the high winds that rolled through the area, winds over 70 miles per hour. they were hurricane force winds. winds up to 80 miles per hour. fredericksburg, virginia, reston virginia close to that at 79-mile-per-hour winds. as we take a look at the rainfall totals, didn't get a lot of that.

but certainly the high winds and the intense lightning was a big part of it. the heat will build quickly. uncomfortable outside. by noon time our temperature will be over 90. the heat index will be well over that as well. 110 degrees is what it will feel like for several hours today. your day planner forecast by 2:00 p.m. 98 degrees. then by 6:00 p.m. still holding at 96. we may get cooling storms for -- and again some of those neighborhoods, not everyone will get wet with thunderstorms today but hot and stormy, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00. the storm chance will continue until about 11:00 p.m. 100 here. forecasting a record high temperature for today. that's coming off the intense heat that we had yesterday, 104 is what we had yesterday, just two degrees away from the all-time record for the area.

stay inside. keep an eye on the sky and tune right here to nbc 4. >> thank you, veronica johnson. >> those storms decimated fairfax county. fallen trees killed two in separate incidents. more than 20,000 are still without power this morning. >> reporter: in the city of falls church. people love this area because of the mature tall trees, but this is what happened when winds like the ones we saw last night come powering through. this is actually half of a very, very tall tree that came crashing down at 11:00 last night. the family that lives inside the house that this is in front of said the storm was so furious when it came through, they heard howling winds. they thought it was hailing but

that's just brafnches falling o the house. you can see that car right through the tree there. the front windshield is smashed out on that. not too much damage. but this is a mess that has to be cleaned up, but for a couple families in our area, tragedy this morning as a result of the storm last night. these are pictures that were taken overnight in springfield on old keene mill road on bower drive. a 27-year-old man driving his vehicle through that area, fairfax police tell us that a tree fell squarely on the top of his car killing him instantly. then close by in a neighborhood near springfield country club on carr place, you can't see it well from the pictures, but there, too, another big tree came down on the roof killing an elderly woman that was in that house. the driver of the vehicle has been identified as khiet nguyen.

back here in falls church, almost every block in this neighborhood has some kind of damage like this. neighbors now are walking around surveying the damage. we talked to a cyclist who went out to see what we he could find and what he could experience at his home last night. >> the board thword that comes is horrific. the wind was howling, the trees seemed to be bending. we were in the basement and prepared for the worst. >> reporter: you could see what i was talking about. you got a lot of people taking saturday morning walks here, some with cameras to get a look at the damage. we got new information from the city of falls church. two thins that people need to know here in falls church, some of their water pumping stations are on backup power. so they're asking people to conserve water if they can. if you don't have to do things like take a long shower, it should be avoided. they're the water is fine to

drink. they're asking people to conserve water. brush pickup through july 3rd. people can chop it up and they'll come by to pick it up. not just homeowners that are impacted by the storm, but local businesses as well. all the debris is making getting out and about a big challenge. chris gordon is live this morning. you have an update on the at&t national stuff, no golf for spectators. >> reporter: it is closed to spectators and volunteer. play sun known at this time. tournament officials are consulting with the pga tour to determine that play will continue tomorrow, they don't know about today. tickets will be honored tomorrow. you can see the foong lin restaurant, their sign has been

blow down. this surveyor is here the make sure the building hasn't shifted because of the damage, the winds here last night. he's trying to line up all of the businesses and check them out here along fairmont. take a look at the video from last night when this happened at about 10:30, foong lin restaurant lost its sign. the owner heard the heavy rain, he looked up and shards of glass were falling down about him. he was okay but there was glass on the sidewalk, glass in the road. trees down blocks lanes on old georgetown road, trees down in kensington, trees over cars, trees on connecticut avenue and the beltway. this situation is widespread power outages through montgomery county as you heard pepco with about a quarter million customers without power. the latest information we're

passing along is that a su vaer is trying to make sure the buildings haven't shifted in any way before they're given the okay to open if and when they get power. at&t nasal closed to spectators and volunteers. what does that mean? can they play without the volunteers? there are 2,000 volunteers working at the country club. they're spobl for keeping the spectators where they need to be but also keeping score, reporting the score into the media center. if the grounds are closed for safety reasons to volunteers, that may indicate that they will not play today. of course, they have a network television commitment. so they are consulting with the pga tour. as soon as we get any indication of whether they're going to play, tiger woods was supposed to, for example, tee off at 12:50 p.m. it looks like everything is delayed and possibly delayed

until tomorrow at the at&t national. >> chris gordon, thank you. we are covering a domino effect of things that have happened as a result of this massive storm that blew into our area. we want to let you know that all activity in montgomery county, schools have been canceled for today. new information coming in as we continue our live broadcast through 10:30 this morning. all activity for montgomery county schools canceled for today. jackie bensen has more about how a storm ripped a roof off an apartment building. >> reporter: residents on riverdale road say it happened very fast and very unexpectedly as the storm's winds slammed into prince george's county, the roof flew off. >> i was in a house. all you heard was a big boom. the winds were shattering and

the lights started flickering. you hear people screaming in the hallways. >> i was in his house. all the noise, all the chaos. >> reporter: this is the situation at the park tanglewood apartments. look here in the parking lot. this is part of the roof, this is why everyone had to come out of here tonight because the roof was literally sheared off a good section of the building. chief mark bashoor said it was shortly after similar damage in the bladensburg area. >> we have over 500 folks that tfb displaced along with this building and the building next door. we have inspectors out, evacuation centers set up at riverdale elementary school.

>> jackie bensen, news 4 today. >> covering the aftermath of last night's storms, good morning, everyone. the time is 8:11. >> more coverage still to come on news 4 today. we're following the situation in just about every corner of the region. these are live pictures. you can see downed trees. a similar sight that everyone will experience today.

d.c. was also hit hard last night during this major storm. an unexpected storm, as we've been talking about this morning. shomari stone shows us some of the damage out of northwest d.c. >> right now we're here at massachusetts avenue and q street. the damage is extensive across the d.c. metro area. take a look at this car right here, this honda. this tree son tis on top of it.

this storm packed with heavy wind, rain and lightning snuck up on the d.c. area. >> i didn't see it comes at all. >> reporter: after it was over john womack took a look around. a strong wind gust snapped this tree like a toothpick, landing on his jeep. >> seeing a car on top of my car was disheartening. >> reporter: this one crushed a truck in southeast d.c. in northwest on 31st street this one fell on top of power lines pulling the live wires on this parked car severely burning the driver and passenger sitting inside. medics rushed the couple to a hospital, at least one is in critical condition. on northwest u street firefighters climbed the ladder truck. the chief told me fierce winds blew the roof off this apartment building. take a look here, we're at massachusetts avenue and 34th street. as you can see, d.c. police have roped off the area.

why? well this massive tree is extending across massachusetts avenue. we're outside vice president joe biden's house. where a block from where you saw that tape. police want drivers to stay away from here. >> i was kind of shocked it was happening to washington, d.c. >> reporter: john womack is also shocked. he puts the damage to his jeep in perspective. >> i'm sure there are a lot of other people that are worse off, but you know, i'll deal with what i got to deal with. >> reporter: crews are going to have to come and chop trees up like these right here to remove this one and remove trees throughout the d.c. metro area. to quote one person i talked to, this storm came with a one-two punch and took a lot of folks by surprise. in d.c., i'm shomari stone, news 4. this is something that our meteorologists have been looking at since yesterday afternoon after they were talking about the heat, then all of a sudden whoa, look at the storms coming in. >> the storms did pack a punch.

a lot of people are out with their cameras. they're capturing the amazing photos from last night's storms. >> we received dozens of them. go to weather@nbcwashington.com. kim martucci shares those pictures. >> this go around we're going to jam pack your pictures and give you more for the money, i promise. first of all, i love this quote. this is from richard graham in d.c. did a job on my garage. he's right. hearts go out to you there. more trees down. this one i'm calling fredericksburg luck from linda and steve smith. this tree fell right between their atv and their derower, i don't know what a derower is. luckily it didn't hit any of the equipment. but the evans family in warrenton not so great with that tree on their house.

swan point maryland from dave, another tree on another house. and it's more and more just like this. this backyard fence showing you typical damage. here's the one from waldorf, maryland, from tabitha, tree completely uprooted. driving in from d.c., i had to use my gps because that was the scene all over the place. limbs down. i drove into police tape. it was up against my windshield before i realized i was about to drive into a car zone. and finally in kingstown, the southern section of alexandria, my husband works right around this, betty sent me this. this is a chimney down from a kingstowne condo. i have so many more to share with you. we're sharing extended coverage.

we're happy that you're part of our team and picking up the slack by sending in are your pictures. weather@nbcwashington.com and we'll do our best to get them on the air for you. be safe when you're doing that. don't go climbing arounded the debris. we'll need you in good health. >> the problem this morning there were so many powter outages, you would come up on a tree and not realize it. hopefully people can get a good look at what's going on out there. >> be safe out there. we're continuing our coverage through 10:30. a live look at bethesda or is this d.c.? this is capitol hill. ♪

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good morning, everyone. thanks so much for joining us on this special coverage of news 4 today. derecho is the fancy word for the storm that hit us last night. >> it's not fancy. it's just what we meteorologist call the word, we call the storm. >> fancy to us. >> it is a rare storm for this area. it is a storm that holds together with powerful winds. we were looking at this system early on in the day just east of

chicago. i looked at one of the wind gusts out of michigan city, michigan. they were up to 85 miles per hour. so they can get up to 100 miles per hour these downward winds, these downbursts that come out of the derecho. in terms of what we're seeing around here, some sunshine right now, but again our highest winds yesterday, that we were able to pick out of the massive amount of storm reports, fredericksburg, virginia, wind gust of 80 miles per hour. we did not get a tremendous amount of rain out of this. so while we've got the hurricane force winds, we didn't get the hurricane type of rain. we got between 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 ichbls of rain. reston 5.0.59 ichbl nches. it's possible that some of the storms we get, they may be severe.

but it won't be widespread damage, it will be more isolated, more scattered. but look at the temperatures on your day planner forecast. 2:00 p.m. already up to 98 by 2:00 p.m. after lunchtime, we're up to the 98 degree mark. high humidity, soaring heat index that feel-like factor 110 degrees for several hours through the afternoon. not the kind of heat you want to be out doing any yard work. but folks have to get out there and start the cleanup pronto. make sure you hydrate as much as possible and take some breaks in the shade. 100 from d.c., manassas, culpepper, charlottesville over 100. they come with another impulse that moves through. that's what we saw yesterday, an impulse that moved through.

storms scattered to the north and west. ohio, these appear to be weakening a bit. scattered to isolated storms. 5:00 to 11:00 p.m. we get a break and partly sunny sky for tomorrow. 96 to 101. that's our actual air temperature for today. very oppressive conditions, poor air quality. not the kind of conditions you want to be out there. then late afternoon and evening when you want to keep a watchful eye on the sky. keep it tuned here to nbc 4. we'll talk about the storms that start developing. they could be intense. mostly cloudy storms gone already east of the area. but our temperature only drops to about 70 to 76 degrees during the overnight period. we've got this weekend to get through of the intensive heat for most of next week our highs between 90 and 95 degrees. you could see a pop-up storm.

>> thank you, veronica, appreciate it. we want to get an update on the outages that are occurring there. >> le-ha anderson is on the phone with us now. where do things stand? >> good morning, dominion has about 450,000 customers in northern virginia that are without power due to the storm that came through yesterday throughout our service area up to northern virginia we have about 802 customers without power. our crews worked through the night last night and we have fresh new crews who are in this morning. we're restoring power and that's a part of critical restoration today and that's assessing damage. looking at the type of resources that we're going to need and estimating how much time we anticipate it will take us to make repairs.

after this process is through we hope to have better information for customers about when they can expect to have their power restored. at the time we don't are restoration times yet. >> is it safe to say this is going to take a few days. this won't be something that we see fixed within a matter of hours? >> that's right. we've seen catastrophic damage throughout the service area. we'll have to rebuild our infrastructure. with that knowledge we know it will be multiday restoration efforts. what we ask for customers is for patience, but we ask them to call and report their outage. call 1-866-dom-help. or 1-866-366-4357. so report your outage but also if you see downed wires or you see trees leaning on wires, stay away from it and call that toll-free number to report that there's a situation that we need

to be attentive to. >> le-ha anderson with dominion, we'll check in with you throughout the day chbl we're starting to get calls about the damage in the area. >> montgomery college in the area is closed because their campus does not have power this morning. montgomery county school activities are also canceled for the day. >> northern virginia community college is closed. >> the med tech institute in falls church. >> and all classes at trinity washington university are closed today. but trinity center will remain open. >> and the paw -- >> patuxent. >> patuxent research center is closed. and the closures that come with the aftermath of this storm. 8:27. >> we'll continue our in depth storm coverage all morning long.

we've still got two hours left to go. we'll go to 10:30. these are live pictures.

this morning about 1.5 million people are waking up without power as we brace for another hot day. the deadly storms move through the region uprooting trees and sending many of them crashing on to homes, businesses and streets. we have live team coverage this morning. good morning. and welcome to news 4 today. i'm richard jordan. >> i'm erika gonzalez, angie goff is off. we are preempting "weekend today" to bring you extended storm damage coverage. take a look outside. you are bound to see some type of trees that are toppled or branches of some sort in d.c.

unfortunately, many of them took aim at cars and even people. derrick ward is on capitol hill with a closer look at the damage. what's going on, what's new in your area this morning? >> reporter: good morning. you can see folks are starting to stir now and they're being greeted by quite a sight here on capitol hill. we're in the 200 block of eighth street. the tree came down. it crushed a pickup truck but did damage to the house across the street completely covering the stoop. take a look at the devastation caused by this tree. by all appearances a healthy tree, but it was taken up at its ro root. people are saying the root base seemed to be small for this tree considering its height. didn't deform the sidewalk at all, but did take up the tree box with it when it fell. this scene is played out all over capitol hill and our area.

but where the canopy is such an attraction and such a part of this neighborhood, this is a devastating sight. no one was hurt. we talked to a gentleman earlier today who said at the height of the storm he got a warning from a relative. you might say it was something windy this way comes. >> my brother called me from martinsburg, west virginia, and he said, it's storming real bad down here. my lights are out and a tree has fell on my next door neighbor's roof. from the looks of things, the storm is headed towards washington, d.c. and i said, you sure? he said, yeah. in fact, he said, it should be there within the next hour. i had paid no attention. before i knew it, lights were flashing and the sky was lit up, the wind was blowing 80 miles

an hour and waves of rain was coming through. my building flooded, the hallway flooded, trees were being tumbled over, as you can see right here. i just came up through the park area. all those trees were falled over, hitting on cars and stuff. it was a fast moving storm, but it was a good storm. >> reporter: now, eastern market and the flea market are indeed opened today, but if you're planning to drive down here, don't expect to be able to drive or park on eighth street here ajaye sent to the market. it will take crews a while to remove this. it will be quite a job because again the top of the tree is reing on the stoop of the houses across the street. no one was hurt, but crews will have their work cut out for them today as they start to here this damage from those devastating storms yesterday. on capitol hill, derrick ward,

news 4. >> hard to see that pickup truck like that. we showed you lots of damage to homes. but businesses were not spared. chris gordon is in bethesda. >> reporter: it's foong lin. you see the sign across the street here, fairmont, was blown out. we showed you a surveyor earlier. he is not worried about foong lin, but he told me they're looking at three businesses along the odd-numbered side of fairmont. and if they're deemed to be unsafe, if they've shifted, some of these businesses may not reopen any time soon. everyone has a story about the wind. we have -- your name? >> louis. >> reporter: he's got a heck of a story. >> i was umpiring and i came back to my car with the umpires. the wind whipped up and i was about to get in my car and a

huge branch fell on my car. i ducked and smacked and came through the glass of my car. the umpire -- other two umpires from the big train game were leaving and a huge 20-foot oak smashed right in the middle of their car and came out. i think we're all okay but it was like the trees were attacking and the wind was like a tornado or something. it was unreal. >> reporter: you realize you're kind of lucky? >> yeah, i just got out of the e.r., so it's no joke. it was very serious. >> reporter: you showed us your shoulder why? >> well, just to show you that branches just will rip right through. i got bruised in the hip. huge branches i ducked that hit me in the car didn't hit me in the head and really cause life threatening damage. >> reporter: louis levine, i imagine the rest of the day will be pretty good for you. >> i'm pretty thankful to be alive. thank you, chris. >> reporter: everybody's got a story. we're sharing them with you this morning on news 4.

>> really lucky guy out there. >> absolutely. >> i'm sure a lot of people are upset, a little annoyed that they don't have power, but you hear something like this -- >> glad that didn't happen, yeah. this is a storm system that really put its footprint on us in a hurry. at 9:0 just coming in to our area. by midnight it was out of here. really unreal the type of damage this was able to do in 2 1/2 hours' time. along with the fact, folks, that it came through so quick with so much lightning and such fierce winds. i wanted to show you -- and temperatures. because i haven't shown you area-wide current temperatures. a lot are missing. you know why they're missing? because when i don't have power, you don't get reporting stations. we've got a lot of holes in our network this morning. in the upper 60s to low 70s. annapolis at 74, 72 at leeingberg.

73 in pax river. a high temperature of 100 degrees. for several hours we'll be holding at 100 degrees. that would be a record for you. by noon time we're easily there. it will be hot, it will be humid, very oppressive and very dangerous heat, too, to be out for any period of time, if you're not cooling down properly. then we could see storms after 5:00 today. storms that could very well have the possibility of staying with us until about 11:00 p.m. back to the heat, back to the storms, just not widespread storms, but mother nature at its worse. >> over in prince george's county, the storm did major damage to an apartment building leaving people without shelter. the storms knocked the roof off of park tanglewood aernts. officials say this is the worst damage they've seen so far. people inside the building during the storm described the

chaos. >> we were in bed, and we just see, you know, the place check in, it was windy. and i said, oh, my god, next minute the lights got off. so we got out of bed. not too long they start saying the roof, something came out of from the roof. >> evacuation centers are set up for people at riverdale elementary school. they're coming off damage last weekend in bladensburg. this could not come at a worst time for them. >> we want to get a check with bge this morning. >> their spokesperson rachel lightly is on the phone with us. what's the status on your end? >> hi, thanks for having me. at this point we have restored service to more than 100,000 customers who have been impacted by this afternoon's storm. the storm brought high wind in excess of 60 to 70 miles an hour

and frequent lightning. we still have 427,000 customers who are out of power. our crews are working aggressively to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. >> we're hearing from pepco earlier that the numbers are fluk tuating. some people who had power are losing power. if you do have power right now, is there a chance you could experience an outage later today and why is that happening? >> we continue to monitor the weather. there are still forms that are forecast to move through the territory again today. we're keeping an eye on those storms. in addition, because those storms brought down whole trees and tree limbs on the power lines you may see some out anls power up as it continues to affect our lines. >> raichle lightly, thank you so much. nearly half a million still without power for bge customers.

>> many are feeling their pain because a lot of people are without power this morning. the red cross has opened up a shelter in hyattsville for those who lost power or had damage to their homes because of the storm. this is at northwestern high school at 7000 'delphi road. they say around 70 people spent the night there. a lot of people looking for a place to stay cool. one thing after another. but we want to remind you to proceed with caution. if you're just now waking up and you are traveling today, you might encounter tree branches and limbs. call family members to make sure they're okay and check on the elderly that may be around you as well because it's going to be hot. >> the time right now is 8:40. our coverage will continue on news 4 today. >> don't forget to send in your

pictures. you can e-mail them to us or twitter us at nbc@washington.com.

cars definitely seem to be the target of the storm in d.c. everywhere our crews went in the district last night they saw smashed cars. a downed tree pulled power lines on to a parked car burn driver and the passenger sitting inside. one of them is in critical condition this morning. you're helping us out by snapping pictures the and sending them to us via twitter or e-mail. kim martucci has pictures. >> some of these have a pretty good sense of humor. if you're a parent and you have a jungle gym in the backyard. how many times have you said

don't jump on the monkey bars! thanks to this tree, we know that monkey bars are pretty strong, as this dad says. stan holder in bowie, i guess the kids can jump on the middle of the monkey bars now. evidently it didn't break. that looks like a letter m. interesting stuff. in culpepper, their dog went out to sniff the damage along their driveway with that tree toppling over. and we heard from you in laplata. melissa jones. i didn't get that rotated. if you are think you are driving and you can get over the leafy areas of the street, you just don't know if there's a power line underneath. don't do it. just like driving across water. don't do it. finally in burke, this area hit hard from ryan pierce. this road completely blocked off

as well. weath weather@nbcwashington.com. that's where you can share your photos. share the detail, too. i'd like to know your name. you can just give a first name. and of course include the town. because some of you are just sending pictures with absolutely no data. i'm like, where is this from? please do that, i'll be happy to get them on the air. >> thank you so much. we are getting new information coming in. >> that's right. we've heard from prince william who tells us that their 911 emergency line is down. >> 703-792-6500. 703-792-6500. their line is down but that's the number to call. >> one of the many effects of this storm that we're covering at 8:45 this morning.

>> we have crews out all along the area. this is a live picture now from bethesda. you can see people are out assessing the damage. we're doing the same. [ female announcer ] safeway presents

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the severe weather is to blame for a massive transformer fire in prince george's county. crews battled that blaze near aerospace drive and green belt road not far from the goddard space flight center. no one was hurt in the fire. investigators are trying to figure out if a lightning strike may have caused that blaze. >> absolutely amazing slidie ii. reports that the computers are down at dulles. so therefore you're not going to be able to get your boarding passes or even get your bags checked this morning. these are some of the reportses that people are calling us and letting us know about the situation at dulles.

we're trying to get you updated and abreast of things as they are developing. >> safe to say if you have travel plans, you want to check no matter what airport you're flying out of. we heard that amtrak was experiencing delays as well. everyone traveling needs to call ahead. >> we'll get that tweeted out, too. i know my house without power. we're staying updated via twitter. >> as long as your battery lasts on your cell phone. >> that's true. charge it in the car. it will be another hot day today. our hearts really go out to any folks who are out there without ac. if you know someone that doesn't have any ac, try to get to them, invite them over to hang out at your house for a couple of hours. if you know someone, maybe say, let's go to the mall and hang out. another scorcher throughout our area today. it will be another scorcher throughout the eastern half of the country today. even if you do manage to get out, wherever you're headed to, maybe philadelphia, maybe new york city.

maybe down to atlanta. maybe it's columbia, south carolina. it will be another oppressive day today. you're looking at a lot of counties shaded in pink. these are the counties under an excessive heat warning for today. 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. our heat index will stay up around 110 degrees for several hour. other counties are looking at excessive heat as well. maybe not quite as high. you will be over 100 degrees for sure. and our observes stations, that's how we get the data. they're not reporting because they don't have any power. what we do have here, manassas, culpepper, 72 in baltimore. annapolis 74, one of the best locations to be today is at the beach and near the water. as far as your day planner forecast, look at this, 2:00 p.m. hot and humid. the temperature 98 degrees.

our record high temperature for today is 100. i do think that we're going to hit that today. we're going to stay with oppressive conditions, then starting at 5:00, we'll start to see storms march our way. unlike yesterday, we won't see that long continuous line plowing through our area, but what we will see later today are some clusters of storms that manage to hold together and be strong enough to provide some wind damage to the area later on today high temperatures up to 98 degrees. gaithersburg, 99 degrees for spots like st. mary's, 97 your high. then further inland including all the way to the west, the mountains, oppressive conditions, 100 degree temperatures for today. here's a look at the radar. a few spotty showers up to the north. but a cluster of storms.

another one for ohio. another impulse coming through. it could provide us with a cluster of storms that will provide some wind damage for today. here is a look at some derecho winds that were up to 80 miles per hour. today and tomorrow. so we've got not just today but tomorrow to get through for this excessive heat. then for next week, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, our highs 90 to 95. tuesday, wednesday, thursday, yes, even fourth of july we sue see a few showers come through. >> thank you, veronica, appreciate it. >> our time is 8:53. >> we're continuing our special coverage today until 10:30 this morning. e-mail us, tweet us, about the storm damage that's in your area.

more than a million people are waking up this morning without power. pepco is reporting more than 437,000 customers are in the dark. dominion has more than 450,000 customers without electricity. >> and at last check from bge, they've got about half a million people still without electricity this morning. smeco reporting more than 39,000 customers that do not have electricity. and noe and novec. the storms have knocked out power. the latest spokesperson for smeco is on the phone. what's the latest on your end? >> good morning, again. we're making slow progress. we'd like it to be a lot quicker. 38,000 outages at this point. at 2:00 a.m. we were over 60,000.

we had a bunch of substations that were out during the height of the storm. we're down to one substation remaining to be re-energized. that's our marshall's corner substation which serves in charles county and the western side of la plata. we hope to have that on soon and that will give us a big bump in restoration. we appreciate our customers' patience. make sure they call in and register their outage that they are without lights. >> it is the substation that's causing most of the outages for you and not downed power lines and trees or branches on the power lines? >> no, the trees on the power lines led to station outages. but the transmission line that feeds the station is out because of a tree being on the line. >> got ya. what's the advice for people who do have power at this point? >> we have 155,000 customers, we have 38,000, 39,000 out.

we'd ask customers due to the extremely hot weather today, find a relative and see if you can't relocate to stay cool, to stay healthy. we expect this to be a multiple day restoration process. we'll see some big numbers being reconnected in the next few hour, but then as we work out the extremities of our system, it will be a slower process. try to make arrangement to relocate and take advantage of -- not take advantage of, but get -- have your friends or your family accommodate you, particularly elderly, particularly those dependent on any kind of medical equipment that uses electricity. >> those who have power should try to lessen the load on the system. >> 39,000 still out in that area. let us know what type of danls and