washington severe and highly destructive storms swept through the eastern united states on monday resulting in the cancellation or delay of numerous flights and leaving over 11 million homes and businesses without power these storms brought with them a range of hazardous conditions including potential tornadoes hail and lightningthe rain began to fall in the washington area shortly after 5pm causing the skies to gradually darken ominously foreshadowing the severe weather and widespread power outages that had been anticipatedthe national weather service issued a tornado watch for the greater dc area in effect until 9pm along with a flood warning that extended through tuesday morning a special statement from the weather service cautioned of a significant threat of destructive hurricaneforce winds large hail and the potential for tornadoes including strong onesthe impact of the storms was extensive as tornado watches and warnings were issued across 10 states spanning from tennessee to new york the national weather service reported that more than 295 million individuals were under a tornado watch on monday afternoon with the greatest concern centered around the washingtonbaltimore regionflightaware a platform for tracking flights reported that more than 2300 flights within the united states had been canceled including 95 flights at washington reagan national airport moreover an additional 6800 us flights were subject to delaysthe federal aviation administration took action to reroute planes around the approaching storms on their way to the east coast and it indicated that flights in and out of major metropolitan areas like new york city philadelphia washington charlotte and atlanta would likely be temporarily haltedin response to the impending severe weather the white house adjusted president joe bidens travel plans moving up his departure time by 90 minutes for a fourday trip to arizona new mexico and utah furthermore a planned cybersecurity event focused on backtoschool matters featuring first lady jill biden education secretary miguel cardona homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas and representatives from the education sector was canceledto ensure safety the office of personnel management announced the closure of all federal offices by 3 pm with nonemergency employees required to leavethe most significant threat was concentrated in the midatlantic area encompassing washington dd some locations were at risk of experiencing winds surpassing 75 miles per hour and hail larger than golf balls as stated by the nwsin response to the weather conditions several facilities in the washington area including libraries museums the national zoo and pools were closed earlier than usual additionally both municipal and federal services were affectednational weather service meteorologist chris strong emphasized the significance of these storms describing them as one of the most impactful severe weather events experienced in the midatlantic region in quite some time during a facebook live briefingthe timing of the storms raised concerns among forecasters as they were expected to hit densely populated areas in the late afternoon and early evening this prompted the early dismissal of federal workers to prevent them from being on the roads during hazardous conditions including strong winds hail