WASHINGTON — With temperatures expected to soar on Sunday, about two million customers remained without electricity after a deadly string of thunderstorms whipped through the mid-Atlantic region, downing trees and power lines, and killing at least 12 people, including a 90-year-old woman who died when a tree fell on her house as she slept.
The damage was most severe in the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia and Maryland, where some residents huddled in their basements as the storm ripped through the area, blowing down trees, upending lawn furniture and tearing off roof shingles.
“It came on very suddenly,” said Laurie Singer, a resident in a heavily wooded area of Potomac, Md. Her home has large plate-glass windows, and she spent 45 minutes huddled in the bathtub, listening as the huge oak trees outside slapped against the glass.
“It was a very short burst of heavy rain and then you heard this swooshing sound, and it was the wind,” she said. “I actually felt the house shaking.”
