NYC officials up heat death toll to 25
Pastor Dale Morgan
NYC officials up heat death toll to 25*
The Associated Press
August 06, 2006 11:33 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- At least 25 people died because of the heat that
scorched the city this week, the medical examiner's office said Saturday.
The medical examiner certified at least 15 deaths as being caused by the
heat wave in addition to the 10 it had reported Friday. The toll could
rise as additional autopsies are performed.
The more recent autopsy results were those of two residents of the
Brooklyn borough and eight in Queens. The six women and four men ranged
in age from 52 to 99, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical
examiner's office.
The new death reports came a day after cooler air settled over much of
the East, bringing relief from a heat wave that had contributed to more
than 200 deaths nationwide.
Temperatures were in the 80s in New York on Saturday after three days of
blistering heat.
In the Chicago area, the Cook County medical examiner's office said
Saturday that the heat had killed at least 21 people.
In Madison County, Ill., the death of an 80-year-old man was attributed
Friday to the heat. His body was found Thursday in his house, in which
an air conditioning unit was turned off and the temperature was 96
degrees, officials said.
In Philadelphia, the medical examiner's office reported four more
heat-related fatalities, all discovered Thursday, bringing to nine the
total number of deaths in the city from the recent hot weather.
Three of the victims were found in their homes, with heat stress listed
as a factor in their deaths. The fourth person died in a hospital of
hypothermia and diabetes.