By SHADI RAHIMI
Published: July 26, 2005
Clusters of states across the nation were enduring another stifling day in a deadly heat wave that broke record highs in some cities and had temperatures soaring above 100 degrees in others.
The National Weather Service posted excessive heat warnings stretching from Illinois to Tennessee and from North Carolina up to New Jersey, where the heat was blamed for at least one death.
Records highs were recorded today in Alaska, Florida and Colorado by the National Climatic Data Center. Many areas in the east were expected to cool slightly by this afternoon, while the temperature in some cities was expected to remain above 80 overnight, rising again to above 100 on Wednesday.
As temperatures rose today, city workers across the country scrambled to help people stay cool, in hopes of avoiding more deaths this summer. Dozens of heat-related deaths of mostly elderly, homeless people and children have been reported across the country.
In Arizona, where last summer 34 people died from the heat, two children have died in a hot car and at least 24 people have died in Phoenix from heat-related causes, said Will Humble, a bureau chief for disease control at the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Most of the people who died were homeless in areas near Phoenix shelters that had been distributing water and ice, Mr. Humble said. But despite the free service, as temperatures rose above 115 last week, he said, "clearly it wasn't enough."
A high temperature of 106 was forecast for Phoenix today. City workers were operating cooling centers by shelters and soup kitchens near the state capital, Mr. Humble said, and several air-conditioned buses were parked in the surrounding area so that homeless people could cool down inside for free.
Cooling centers were also made available today in New York, where temperatures are expected to reach 100. In a statement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg urged New Yorkers to use cooling centers and public swimming pools instead of illegally opening fire hydrants, which "wastes up to 1,000 gallons of water per minute."
New Yorkers can call 311 or log on to www.nyc.gov to find the nearest cooling center or public pool.
City workers in Chicago were driving people in shuttles to cooling centers and checking in on elderly residents, said a spokesman at the department of health, in an effort to prevent a repeat of the July 1995 heat wave that killed 500 people in the city over a four-day period.
The deaths were attributed to blistering temperatures above 100 that left residents of cramped neighborhoods with asphalt pavement and boarded-up buildings especially vulnerable, according to a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chicago.
In Missouri, where the temperature is expected to exceed 100, health officials are urging people to spend time indoors, in places with air-conditioning. Missouri hit a daily record high on Monday, with 103 in Vichy-Rolla.
At least three people have died in Missouri, and 150 heat-related illnesses have been reported, said Brian Quinn, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Two of the women who died appeared to have had air-conditioning, but were not using it, he said.
The demand for electricity to run air-conditioners is expected to break records in the District of Columbia, Maryland and in parts of Virginia today, according to Pepco, the energy company that serves more than 725,000 customers in the three regions.
Pepco - which broke its record for peak demand at 5 p.m. on Monday as customers used 6,452 megawatts of power - asked its customers to "use energy prudently" to help prevent "possible power supply problems."
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