President Obama approved disaster assistance for Virginia communities overwhelmed by storms that left more than 1 million people without power and ravaged dozens of counties across the state.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the state and 62 local governments in the cleanup of the swift but devastating derecho and ensuing storms from June 29 to July 1. The natural disaster was one of the most violent non-hurricanes on record and left 15 dead and knocked out power to 1.3 million Virginia customers, the third greatest outage in state history.

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