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Thousands of people remain without power across the region, more than 36 hours after severe weather swept through, killing one person and toppling hundreds of trees and power lines.
The outages led several schools to cancel classes again Friday. (CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE LIST)
About 35,000 people were still without power Friday morning, and utilities say it could be the weekend before service is restored to everyone. Pepco reported about 14,000 outages; BGE reported more than 1,500 outages; and Dominion Virginia Power reported about 21,000 outages.
Around 11:30 a.m. Thursday, about 240,000 customers across the region had no power.
Some outages could last for several days because of the severity of the damage, Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin said. Utility companies were urging people to stay away from downed wires.
The lack of power had parents charged up in Fairfax County (web|news) when some schools didn't have electricity Thursday. Many students showed up for class only to be sent home after a decision by the school.
"If I have power, I'm gonna assume the school has power. I'll check online. But, if I don't have power, I'm not sending them again," said one parent.
Many families returned to hot homes. The MacMullen family in Annandale tried to cool off with a pool party in the front yard, but Lori MacMullen worried about the refrigerator full of food. "I just opened the freezer in the basement and the waffles thawed out. I guess they have to go."
As power crews tried to repair many downed lines, businesses from Route 1 to Annandale lost power and money. Gary Sherfey said thousands of dollars of flowers were fine. The electricity turned on in time for him to prepare corsages for prom nights, but he said he's never weathered a storm like the one that hit.
"One fellow was on his motorscooter and it almost blew him into the parking lot. And I told him to bring your scooter and yourself and everybody in here, so thats what he did. So he just waited out the storm."
A man was killed in the Annandale area when a tree fell on top of a vehicle, Fairfax County fire department spokesman Lt. Raul Castillo said. The victim was identified as 57-year-old Huu Dai Pham, of Delaware. Pham was a passenger in the Toyota 4Runner when it was struck Wednesday. The driver was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
Castillo says several motorists had to be rescued overnight after they drove into high water in low-lying residential areas. He says fire crews also responded to some outside fires that may have been started by downed wires.
In a Falls Church neighborhood, Michael Gesami said a felled tree crashed through the roof of his two-story house like a meat cleaver.
"I thought it was really loud thunder," Gesami, 20. "It crashed right through."
In Chesapeake Beach, Md., Mayor Gerald Donovan said one person was injured after a tornado apparently touched down in the area and ripped the roofs and siding off several homes. 
Beau Singleton's house is likely to be condemned due to the severe wind damage. He was home when the storm hit.
"I was up on the deck talking to my neighbor telling her what to look for if it was a tornado and then I looked back that way and I just looked back at her and said 'get inside!'"
Tommy Smith was waiting to see if his 70 year old house was a total loss. He watched Thursday as his insurance agent assessed the damage.
"You see people's homes on TV but until it hits your home, you really understand that this is really pretty devastating," he said.
The high winds shifted the four now condemned townhouses off their foundation. Becky Wahl, who manages the property, was terrified when she heard the storm tore through her community.
"The storm just came up really, really fast and we were looking out and all the trees were just leaning back and forth like this and the rain was just so torrential you couldn't see."
A newly renovated Trader's Seafood Restaurant no longer has a roof. It's future stands uncertain.
"It's a major hardship. I mean how do you overcome something like this? Are we going to be open? How long? Is it months, weeks, half a year," said Gary Luckett with Traders Seafood Restaurant.In Chesapeake Beach, ABC 7 Meteorologist Adam Caskey reported one tell-tale sign of a tornado, a line of trees that had been sheared off. A final determination on the cause of the destruction will be made by the National Weather Service (web|news) .
"It was horrible," recalled Ruby Ackerman, who lives in the Bay View Hills Subdivision in Chesapeake Beach. "I couldn't look at the sky. I was looking at the lightning and the debris that was falling and being tossed around."
The storm tore the neighborhood apart, toppling trees, hurtling a branch 100 yards and through a flower pot, even tearing a stop sign from the ground.
"All of the sudden there was kind of a wave of wind that came through," said resident Dan Springer. "Didn't sound like a train -- I was telling someone this morning - it sounded like a bowling alley." Video shows high winds moving through Falls Church, Va. Submitted by Peter Beckman
In northern Virginia, wind damage was reported across Loudoun County (web|news) including downed trees across roadways, said county sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell.
"[We have] a couple reports of [funnel cloud] sightings but no confirmation of a touchdown," Troxell said.
Video shows funnel cloud near Culpeper/Madison. Submitted by Matt McDill.
Video shows funnel cloud in Leesburg, Va. Submitted by Dawn Rizzoni
In Maryland, Anne Arundel County fire officials said a tornado touched down about 3:30 p.m., but there were no early reports of damage or injuries.
Two people were trapped at a construction site near Baltimore when a crane collapsed as the storms rolled through, but they were not seriously injured. High winds were blamed for the collapse.
At least 14 homes were severely damaged by strong winds in Charles County, Md., in the first band of storms, said Katie Leahan, spokeswoman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency. Also in southern Maryland, a shelter was set up at a St. Mary's County high school. Leahan said there were no serious injuries reported.
"We've got areas that have light poles bent in half," Leahan said. "It's a very sobering reminder that severe weather can happen at any time and people need to be prepared for it."
Hundreds of thousands of people lost power throughout Maryland, Virginia and the Washington area.
All public schools in Montgomery and Prince George's County, Md., will be closed Thursday because of widespread power outages affecting school buildings.
In western Maryland, 15 homes were severely damaged in Washington County, including one that collapsed. More than 200 trees fell, blocking numerous roads, Leahan said.
In Dorchester County, Md., a tree fell on a mobile home during the storm but caused no injuries. Emergency Management Director Wayne Robinson said a funnel cloud was spotted in the Eastern Shore county, but the cloud did not touch ground.
No deaths were reported in Maryland, but Leahan said four people doing work on the roof of a Chesapeake Beach restaurant were injured.
Metro train service in northern Virginia was disrupted for several hours just ahead of the afternoon commute because of downed trees near the tracks.
Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said wires fell on both tracks between the East Falls Church and West Falls Church stations. Trains couldn't operate between the two stations. Shuttle buses were brought in to help people get home, but hundreds were forced to wait as crowds overwhelmed the buses.
It took commuter Rosemary Hidalgo more than 3½ hours to go from the National Mall in Washington to her home in northern Virginia. She had to take a Metro train and a bus to get to her car in a commuter parking lot before she could drive home.
"It's just sad that we're not better prepared," she said. "It was just a little power outage."
The MARC (web|news) commuter rail line in Maryland canceled all trains for Thursday on its Brunswick Line, which runs from Washington to West Virginia, because of downed trees, spokeswoman Jo Green said. Elsewhere Wednesday, flash flood warnings were posted for parts of Indiana, where the weather service said as much as 5 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours and an additional 1.5 inches of rain was possible.
One tornado battered Moscow, Ind., on Tuesday, a community of about 80 residents about 35 miles southeast of Indianapolis. It destroyed one house, damaged four or five others and knocked down trees and utility lines, officials said. State officials said another house was destroyed in Greene County, and aerial coverage showed some rural farm houses had been leveled.
One woman was in critical condition after being impaled in the upper chest by a 3-inch-diameter tree limb, said Charles Smith, chief of the Posey Township Volunteer Fire Department. He helped rescue her from storm debris.
"Her house was gone, along the side of the river bank. There's nothing left of it," he said. "She didn't talk, but she was moaning. I just hope she makes it."
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