Three governors declared a state of emergency after powerful storms swept through the eastern United States Friday night, resulting in at least 12 deaths and leaving more than three million without power.

Under the statewide emergency declaration, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio, can utilize all government resources immediately to help those in need. The District of Columbia also declared a state of emergency.

Gov. John Kasich cited widespread power losses in Ohio, utility damages and excessive heat that could create crisis conditions for some Ohioans. State emergency officials say 800,000 to 1 million people still had power outages Saturday morning.