Misery index high in the mid-Atlantic states

Workers cut up a fallen tree so that power lines can be repaired in Huntingtown, Md. More than a million homes across the Washington, D.C., area lost power after a severe thunderstorm. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

July 2, 2012 2:21 PM PT

In the wake of severe summer storms in the mid-Atlantic region, almost 2 million people still were without power.

Maryland state police Officer Eric White directs traffic at Seminary Road and Georgia Avenue during rush hour in Silver Spring, Md. About 445,000 businesses and households in the metropolitan area surrounding the nation’s capital remain without electricity three days after a deadly storm ripped a path from Illinois to the mid-Atlantic region (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

A sign on a tree atop a vehicle offers free firewood in Falls Church, Va., as cleanup continued after Friday’s storm. About 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. (Matthew Barakat / Associated Press)

Three huge trees that were downed during last week’s storm block Bonifant Street in a residential neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Katie Kiang sits by an electrical outlet in a quiet spot to study for the Graduate Record Examinations inside the air-conditioned Westfield Montgomery mall in Silver Spring, Md. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Almost 40% of Pepco utility customers in Montgomery County, just north of the District of Columbia, are still without electricity, and the power company does not expect to have full service restored until Friday. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

A man carries an air conditioner he purchased at a P.C. Richard & Son store in New York. Temperatures in the 90s are keeping many parts of the Northeast under heat advisories or excessive heat warnings. (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

Visitors jump into a quarry lake at the Beaver Dam Swimming Club in Cockeysville, Md. With many of them without electricity, residents of the Baltimore and Washington area continue to seek ways to beat the heat. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Briana Thompson, 9, plays in a fountain to keep cool at Lillian Webb Park in Norcross, Ga. Scorching temperatures across Georgia are smashing records in the state. (Jason Getz / Atlanta Journal & Constitution)