By Debbi Wilgoren and Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 23, 2006 6:28 PM

About 3,000 Washington area households remained without power early this evening after severe thunderstorms swept through the region overnight.

Utility officials said some 40,000 homes were reported without power immediately after the storms. The loss of electricity was concentrated in Northern Virginia, especially Alexandria, with a few thousand households without power in the District and Prince George's County as well.

More heavy rain and thunderstorms were expected tonight, weather forecasters said, raising the possibility of flash flooding in poor drainage areas, as well as additional power outages.

Utility officials said most of the power outages came from downed tree limbs interfering with power lines.

Winds from the storm were not as strong in the District and Maryland as in Northern Virginia, which accounted for the disparity in disrupted service.

Spokespeople for Pepco and Dominion Virginia Power said work crews would continue to make repairs and restore power to households throughout the day, weather permitting.

Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin said about 14,000 households in the District, Montgomery County and Prince George's counties lost power at about 1:30 a.m. because of the storm. Electricity was restored to most of these customers at 3 a.m., he said.

Dominion Virginia Power had reported about 15,000 customers without power at 11 this morning.

By 6:15 p.m., less than 2,500 northern Virginia households had no power.

Updated outage reports can be seen here for Northern Virginia and for the District and Maryland .