STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On the day after the Fourth, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
And I'm Linda Wertheimer.
It was especially easy for some Americans to see the fireworks last night. They had no competing source of light.
INSKEEP: Brilliant displays lit up cities like New York and Washington, but across Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey, about a quarter of a million homes still have no electricity.
WERTHEIMER: Some smaller celebrations had to be cancelled in Eastern states after last week's powerful storms, which caused havoc from Iowa to the East Coast.
INSKEEP: Officials blame the storms for at least 26 deaths, many from falling trees.
WERTHEIMER: In the Midwest and the Western U.S., dry, hot weather is still causing trouble. Officials in some cities in Indiana and Missouri did not want to take any chances with fireworks.
INSKEEP: Many communities in Colorado scrapped their displays as huge wildfires continued to burn. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.