Heat wave: Eastern US to see 'a resurgence of the heat,' say forecasters

A storm amid record heat has left millions from Illinois to Virginia without electricity.

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Montgomery County, in Washington's Maryland suburbs, said it needed to focus on cleanup. Springfield, Tennessee, joined a string of cities citing fire risks for calling off its fireworks display, and many Tennessee cities have banned the private use of fireworks.

In Pictures: Beating the summer heat

Insurers

The largest U.S. home and auto insurer, State Farm, said it had received about 29,000 claims from last weekend's storms, more than three-quarters of them for house damage.

Two of its peers, USAA and Nationwide, said on Monday they had received more than 12,000 claims, with the majority also for homes. The three collectively account for about 16 percent of the U.S. property insurance market.

Temperatures from 90 Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) to more than 100 F (37.7 C) were forecast from the plains to the Atlantic Coast on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Fourth of July holiday.

"Over the next few days much of the eastern third of the country will see a resurgence of the heat experienced last weekend," U.S. weather forecasters said.

The record books got a brief respite. On Monday, no temperature records were broken after 288 were set nationwide on Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

The upper Midwest could see more severe thunderstorms like the one that ripped down trees and power lines in northern Minnesota, knocked out the phone system in the city of Bemidji and soaked Duluth.

The death toll from the storms and high temperatures climbed to at least 22 with four more heat-related deaths reported in Nashville, Tennessee, Kansas City, Mo., and Virginia.

Much of the devastation to the power grid was blamed on last weekend's rare "derecho," a complex of severe thunderstorms that packed hurricane-force straight-line winds from the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean.

With power lines down across the region, the U.S. government told federal workers in the Washington area they could take unscheduled leave or work from home on Monday and Tuesday.