WASHINGTON | The death toll is at least 18 in weekend storms that have left millions without electricity in a swath of states from the East Coast to Ohio and Illinois.
Lighting flashes Saturday morning, June, 30, 2012 in Hebron Md.. Violent storms swept across the eastern U.S., killing at least nine people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands on a day that temperatures across the region are expected to reach triple-digits. (AP photo by Salisbury Daily Times, Kristin Roberts)
Frances Lukens looks at the tangle of boards and tree limbs piercing her living room ceiling in Lynchburg, Va. on Saturday, June 30, 2012 after a huge oak tree fell directly on the house during a storm the previous night. (AP Photo/The News & Advance, Parker Michels-Boyce)
Gary Davis tosses aside a section of a Tulip Poplar tree the fell behind a friend’s house on Greenwood Drive in Lynchburg, Va., July 1, 2012. The tree fell between two houses, narrowly sparing both. (AP Photo/The News & Advance, Parker Michels-Boyce)
A car sits, crushed by a fallen tree, on Carrington Road in Lynchburg, Va., July 1, 2012. Two days after storms tore across the eastern U.S., power outages were forcing people to get creative to stay cool in dangerously hot weather. Temperatures approached 100 degrees in many storm-stricken areas, and utility officials said the power will likely be out for several more days. (AP Photo/The News & Advance, Parker Michels-Boyce)
A Lynchburg City worker ties power lines above a traffic signal at Oakley and Memorial Avenues, July 1, 2012. Two days after storms tore across the eastern U.S., power outages were forcing people to get creative to stay cool in dangerously hot weather. Temperatures approached 100 degrees in many storm-stricken areas, and utility officials said the power will likely be out for several more days. (AP Photo/The News & Advance, Parker Michels-Boyce)
A tree sitting atop a vehicle offers free firewood in Falls Church, Va., Monday, July, 2, 2012, as cleanup continued after Friday’s storm, Around 2 million utility customers are without electricity across a swath of states along the East Coast and as far west as Illinois as the area recovers from a round of summer storms that has also caused at least 17 deaths. (AP Photo/Karen Mahabir)
The latest reported death was in West Virginia. Authorities there said Monday a person died when riding an all-terrain vehicle that hit a fallen tree on a road early Sunday.
Previous reports had at least six people killed in Virginia, three in North Carolina, two each in New Jersey and Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky and one in Washington. Most deaths were from trees falling on homes and cars
Around 2 million customers across the region were without power Monday morning. And utility officials said the power would likely be out for several more days.