25 dead in ongoing heat wave as storms bring flood, wind threats to East Coast

Key Points:

• A weeklong heat wave has caused at least 25 deaths, primarily in New Jersey, with 40 million people under heat alerts across the East Coast, Southeast, and Southwest regions.
• Record high temperatures were set on July 4th in several cities, including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Raleigh, with heat index values reaching 100 to 105 expected to continue into Sunday evening.
• Extreme heat watches are in effect for parts of Arizona and California, with daytime highs potentially reaching 114 degrees through midweek.
• Thousands remain without power across the eastern U.S., including significant outages in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, while New York City has seen over 378 emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses.
• Severe summer storms have caused damaging wind gusts and widespread power outages, with 25 million people under storm alerts and flood warnings from Delaware to Connecticut, where heavy rainfall and flash flooding risks persist through Monday.