East Coast Weather Makes Daily Life Problematic for Locals and Tourists

The super-hot weather on the East Coast has not just been annoying -- it's been dangerous. According to the Associated Press, downed trees during a violent thunderstorm killied at least 13 people and left 3 million without power during a heat wave.

The outages might take up to a week to repair, say officials. In fact, Virigina Governor Bob McDonald called the lack of power "a very dangerous situation" and said that this was the largest non-hurricane power outage in the state's history. A state of emergency was declared in Virginia, as it was in Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. More storms could be on the horizon.

In West Virginia, 232 Amtrak passengers were stranded Friday night when two trees fell on the train tracks and blocked the train in place. It was an estimated 20 hours before the passengers were picked up by busses. Furthermore, storm damage in Illinois, forced dozens of mentally ill maximum-security prisoners to transer facilities. A particularly dangerous ramification of the weather ocurred in some Virginia suburbs of the national capitol, where some emergency 911 call centers were out of service. In response, residents were told to call local police and fire departments. In addition, the AP says that "cell phone and Internet service was spotty, gas stations shut down and residents were urged to conserve water until sewage plants returned to power."

Along with a lack of web access, the lack of power meant a lack of air conditioning at a time when temperatures reached triple-digits in the area.

"I've called everybody except for the state police to try to get power going," said Karen Fryer, resident services director at two assisted living facilities in Washington. Although the facilities had generator power, they needed to purchase portable air conditioning units. Fryer was also concerned about a few of her residents who required backup power for portable oxygen.

Although the storm mainly hit West Virginia and the Washington, D.C. suburbs, it also did damage from Indiana to New Jersey. Two young cousins in The Garden State were killed when a tree fell on their tent while camping. Two were killed in Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky and one in Washington. At least six died in Virginia.

"This is very unfortunate timing," said Myra Oppel, a spokeswoman for Pepco, which reported over 400,000 outages in Washington and its suburbs. "We do understand the hardship that this brings, especially with the heat as intense at is. We will be working around the clock until we get the last customer on."

The sick, the very young, and the elderly are especially at risk for difficulties. Over 20 elderly residents in an Indianapolis apartment home were moved when the facility lost power due to a downed tree. People spent the night at a Red Cross facility, as well as in shopping malls, movie theaters and other places with strong air conditioning.