good morning and welcome to early start. i m ali velshi. zoraida is off today. i like these hours. i m eating a hot dog this morning. i love that about you, ali velshi. i m ashleigh banfield. it is 5:01. it s the holiday but this fourth of july is less about celebration and more about patience for many americans. and in some cases, even survival. because for six days now there have been many of your fellow countrymen with no power in this extraordinary heat wave. at least 20 people have now died since thursday when deadly storms slammed the east, slammed the midwest. and about 1.2 million people are still waiting to get their power back, to get a fan on, to get the ac back. this is right across the country. here are the states without power today. power companies are repairing damaged transmitters as fast as they can, but customers still could be waiting until the weekend. still until the weekend until they can get that electricity back. and all of this, while those u
first to our brand new cnn orc polls. this is issue number one, the economy. and a surprising jump in the number of americans who believe the economy will eventually get better. take a look at this. when asked about what economic conditions will be like next year, 60% now say they believe they will be good compared to only 39% who say conditions will be poorer. last fall when we asked the same question, those numbers were very different indeed. only 39% saying things would get better in the year to come. we sent our own joe johns to the key battleground state of ohio for a closer look at these new numbers. joe is joining us now from his old hometown of columbus, ohio. what s going on there, joe? reporter: that s right, wolf. well, things are starting to look better here in the buckeye state, but i have to tell you that cnn orc poll indicates that nationwide one thing is clear, the number one issue on voters minds happens to be jobs and the economy. the november election ma
have disappeared. the rebuilding will begin. electricity is being restored to a large part of tuscaloosa. the electrical company here in alabama has done a pretty good job. we have heard no complaints about the effort to get the electricity back on here. however, several hundred thousand people are still without power, mostly in northern alabama where the transmission towers have been toppled. it will take a while to get those back up and running. where are now people staying? red cross? fema centers? neighbors taking in those that lost everything? reporter: all of that. the red cross set up 33 shelters in the state and a lot of full, and a lot staying with relatives and friends in other parts of the state, and coming back here and picking up belongings and going back and reassessing what they need to do to restart their lives. many thanks.