2 dead, 1.1 million without power after eastern US storm

At least two people were killed and more than a million lost power Monday night after a powerful storm slammed the eastern United States.

A 15-year-old boy died in South Carolina after being struck by a tree during the storm, while a 28-year-old man in Alabama was killed by a lightning strike.

More than 1.1 million homes and businesses across the eastern U.S. lost power amid the storm on Monday evening. By Tuesday morning, more than 330,000 customers remained without power from Pennsylvania down to Georgia, according to PowerOutage.us.

Federal employees in Washington, D.C., were told to go home early Monday as the National Weather Service (NWS) declared a tornado watch in the area for the first time in a decade and forecast strong winds and hail in the mid-Atlantic region.

Portions of Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky were also placed under tornado watches Monday, with more than 29.5 million people throughout the U.S. facing such warnings.

More than 1,700 flights in the U.S. were canceled Monday and more than 8,800 were delayed, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.

The Associated Press contributed.