Heat Wave Keeps Deadly Grip on Nation

CHICAGO — Guzzling down bottled water under the searing midday sun, police Officer Mike Sanders began his shift Friday checking to see how senior citizens were faring in the heat.

Knocking on the door of one high-rise apartment, he got no answer. Inside, he found 81-year-old Mary Powls lying on the floor of her sweltering home. Her windows were closed, and she had no fans or air conditioning.

The groggy woman said she had fallen and couldn’t get help.

“It’s a good thing that we came around when we did,” Sanders said. He later checked on her in the hospital, where she was admitted in stable condition with a 104-degree temperature.

As an unrelenting heat wave kept its grip on much of the nation--from the Plains states to the East Coast--Chicago officials deployed hundreds of workers on the streets to avoid a repeat of 1995, when scorching summer heat was blamed for more than 700 deaths.

The current heat wave has been linked to at least 91 deaths in 17 states across the country since July 19. The Midwest has been hardest hit, with Missouri logging 29 heat-related deaths, Illinois 23 and Ohio 10.

Temperatures neared 100 degrees in many cities, and the heat index--a measure of temperature and humidity--rose past 110 in several places.

By midday, it was 98 along the Chicago lakefront and 99 in Kansas City, Mo.--the 15th straight day that state had seen temperatures in the 90s.

Across Illinois, noon temperatures were 94 in Quincy, 93 in Peoria and Springfield, 98 in East St. Louis and 99 in Mount Vernon.

In other areas, temperatures had broken through the 100-degree mark by early afternoon. It was 104 degrees in Louisville, Ky., and 102 at the Little Rock, Ark., Air Force Base.

It’s been so bad in central Arkansas that Danny Mahan, safety director for a construction company there, said workers pouring concrete have been arriving at work at about 3 a.m. to avoid working in the afternoon heat.

Chicago issued an extreme heat warning Friday, sending workers door to door checking on senior citizens and urging people to take advantage of 30 air-conditioned cooling centers. Officials hired extra ambulances and issued stern warnings for people to stay inside.

“If there was ever a day that hot weather threatened the lives of people in Chicago, it is today,” said Fire Commissioner Edward Altman, who has been coordinating the city’s heat relief efforts.

Chicago had no formal heat emergency plan until the death tolls started mounting during the 1995 heat wave.

On Thursday, the heat index crept toward 120 degrees in Chicago, according to the National Weather Service.

A cool front was expected to move in this weekend and return temperatures to normal in many parts of the Midwest. Thunderstorms were expected to help cool off the central Great Lakes area through the mid-Atlantic states.

In South Carolina, temperatures were in the 90s for the 14th straight day on Friday, with the National Weather Service bureau in Raleigh reporting the heat index as high as 110 in some areas.