Mercury rises high in East

Outages prompt evacuations; people urged to conserve

The Associated Press, Aug. 2, 2006

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Elderly residents were evacuated from blacked-out apartments Tuesday, and public officials urged people to conserve electricity, as a stifling heat wave spread across the eastern half of the nation, sending temperatures toward potentially record highs.

Temperatures were likely to soar to around 100 in Washington, New York and other cities along the East Coast, as well on the southern Plains, with readings in the 90s elsewhere. Before the sun was high in the sky, New York's Central Park hit 88 degrees at 11 a.m. and parts of upstate New York were already at 90.

"I'm ready for the wrath of nature," Gary Waxman said, as he fortified himself with towels and extra T-shirts Tuesday morning for his job at a newsstand in suburban White Plains.

Utility officials predicted record demand as people cranked air conditioners and fans to the max.

Chicago officials evacuated hundreds of residents -- many of them elderly -- from blacked-out high-rises in a densely populated area of the city's South Side on Tuesday morning. City officials said up to 20,000 people lost electricity beginning Monday evening.

"It's a mess," said Lenora Stinson, 47, who was in an 11th floor apartment when the power died. "It's a big mess. Everybody's panicking -- they don't know where they're going."

About 350 of the most fragile evacuees were taken to hotels, and 600 others were taken to the nearby McCormick Place convention center, said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

The temperature had reached 92 degrees by late Tuesday morning, and officials made available a special telephone line to request checks on vulnerable neighbors and friends. The city's Department of Aging also telephoned senior citizens to offer help, such as rides to cooling centers.

In upstate New York, thermometers hit 90 degrees before noon and were expected to reach as high as 102. Two small fans set to "high" did nothing for parking lot attendant Isaiah Bishop in Syracuse, New York.

"They're just blowing hot air. I'm still sweating," said Bishop, 24.

The New York Independent System Operator, which controls the state power grid, predicted record demand, but spokesman Ken Klapp said the state should have enough electricity, barring equipment problems.

The heat wave, similar to the one that blistered California last week, spread across the Midwest on Monday, endangering millions of people with outdoor jobs and prompting communities to throw air-conditioned buildings open to the public.

Farmers in Ohio resorted to fans and cold showers to keep their livestock cool. Frozen water bottles were placed next to rabbits Tuesday at the Auglaize County Fair in Wapakoneta.

"This kind of heat can be deadly to animals," said dairy farmer Clark Emmons at Fayette, Ohio. His milk production was down about 10 pounds per cow because of the heat.

However, the heat had started to ease slightly on the northern Plains as the hottest air pushed toward the east. On Sunday, Bismarck, North Dakota, cooked at a record high of 112 degrees, but on Tuesday the 9 a.m. reading was only 65, and the forecast was for a high only in the lower 80s.

In Illinois, the Cook County medical examiner's office reported two heat-related deaths in the Chicago area on Monday, both men with heart disease, and a third death was reported in the central part of the state.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press

Deadly heatwave moves east across United States
Reuters News Service, Aug 1, 2006

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Parts of eastern United States prepared on Tuesday for a potentially deadly heatwave with the mercury forecast to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) but power grid operators assured demand could be met.

The heatwave is moving across the country from California, which has just suffered through more than two consecutive weeks of triple-digit temperatures that killed at least 126 people and caused power failures.

Meteorologists also forecast 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Detroit, St. Louis and Chicago on Tuesday and temperatures that would top 100 degrees in Philadelphia and Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The National Weather Service, or NWS, issued excessive heat warnings and said the heat index -- how hot it actually feels when the humidity is combined with the air temperature -- was due to hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 C) in New York on Wednesday.

"If people do not take precautions we could be looking at a significant number of fatalities," said NWS Warning Coordinator Meteorologist Gary Conte, adding that New York City had not suffered such a string of hot temperatures since July 1999.

"The forecasted temperatures and heat indices (in 1999) were pretty close to what we're looking at now. The impact from that event resulted in 43 deaths in New York City and New Jersey with rolling blackouts, buckled roads and so forth."

Conte said the last time temperatures topped 100 degrees in Central Park and on Long Island was on August 9, 2001, while Newark, New Jersey, last suffered 100 degree heat on August 13, 2005.

New York City has opened air conditioned "cooling centers" for people to take refuge in and extended hours at public swimming pools, while urging the public not to open up fire hydrants.

Electricity grid operators did not expect they would have to institute rolling blackouts, which are aimed at preventing uncontrolled outages, due to any lack of generating capacity.

However, in some regions power distribution cables could fail, like those which recently left 25,000 Con Edison customers in New York without power for as long as week.

New York suffered through the worst blackout in North American history and lost as much as $1 billion in August 2003 when the city, the most populous in the United States with 8 million people, was without power for 29 hours.

The cascading outages also left up to 50 million people in Ontario and eight U.S. states in the dark.