WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- Storms in the Washington, D.C., area left nearly 2 million people without power and two people died when trees fell onto a house and a car, authorities said.
The storms hit the nation's capital and the Maryland and Virginia areas after a heat wave gripped the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the southeast and the Plains, MSNBC reported.
The storms also cut off power to more than 500,000 customers in West Virginia and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency.
"The damage from today's storms is widespread and in many places severe," Tomblin said.
"With temperatures near 100 degrees expected this weekend, it's critical that we get people's power back on as soon as possible. We're committing 100 percent of our state's resources for as long as we need to get this cleaned up."
Pepco reported 226,012 power outages in Montgomery County, Md., 133,160 in Prince George's County and 66,684 in Washington.
In northern Virginia, Fairfax County police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings said a 90-year-old woman who had been sleeping in bed was killed Friday night when high winds blew a tree onto her house in Springfield.
A tree collapsed onto a car in Springfield, causing another death, officials said.
The temperature in Washington, D.C., hit 104 about 5 p.m. Friday, a record high for the date.
In Nashville, Tenn., the temperature reached 109 degrees Friday, breaking a 60-year record.
Heat warnings and advisories were in effect in much of the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, the Plains and the Midwest.
Forecasters predicted the heat wave would continue
Accuweather reported temperatures in the next few days would climb to 100 degrees or higher in the Mid-Atlantic, the South, the southern Plains and the Ohio Valley.