emily, this hasn t been just a weather vaent. it has been an economic event. businesses haven t been able to operate. reporter: hi, gary. it has been such a long week for people. when you see trees like this that toppled and the power lines that came down more than a week ago, it set off a chain reaction so big that the experts, the government and even small businesses say they just haven t been able to add up the total costs yet. what is clear is that as the power comes back on, people are beginning to see just how much they lost. though it only takes an instant for the lights to go out in a storm, things can get darker for days. a chevy chase supermarket just outside washington. disaster hit three days after losing power. a refrigerated trailer compressor blew up and with it the family-owned supermarket s back-up plan. we lost everything in the trailer. then everything in the frozen food case here. basically we ve lost everything in the entire store. reporter: it mean
ferocious flame, firefighters are starting to get an upper hand. that s the good news. we have reporters, as always, all over the country covering these major stories for you. i want to start out with sandrasandra endo and let s begin with athena. athena, nearly 4 million homes are without power from indiana to player land from the brutal storms, the death toll is climbing. what can you tell us? what are you seeing? reporter: well, we know that there are six confirmed deaths in virginia, poppy. that s coming from the governor s office, governor rob mcdonald. at least 1 million customers are without power in west virginia and that s a large chunk of the nearly 4 million. the governor has declared a state of emergency due to the severe storms and we note two other deaths and an official said a man was electrocuted after he left his house and a woman in maryland, a 71-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on her home. this is proof of how dangerous the storms can be. you