Perilous Times and Climate Change
US Easterners seek respite as temps soar above 100
NEW YORK (AP) — The East Coast broiled under an unforgiving sun Tuesday
as record-toppling temperatures soared to 100 or higher in several
cities, utility companies cranked out power to cool the sweating masses
and the unlucky sought any oasis they could find.
The temperature hit 103 degrees in New York City and 102 in
Philadelphia, breaking records for the day, both set in 1999. The
temperature also soared past the century mark in Boston, Washington and
Newark, N.J., and broke records in Providence, R.I., and Hartford, Conn.
After an extended Fourth of July weekend when temperatures inched into
at least the 90s from Maine to Texas, The National Weather Service
issued heat advisories until Wednesday night for much of the Northeast
and mid-Atlantic, including an excessive heat warning for the
Philadelphia area.
With people cranking up their air conditioning, energy officials
predicted near-record demand for power.
"It will be a challenge," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
although utilities and regional electrical system operators cited ample
generation capacity and expected no major blackouts. Just a smattering
of power failures were reported.
Even so, those without air conditioning were left to cope as they
could. On the baking streets of the Bronx, 14-year-old Miguel Pena and
13-year-old Vincent Quiles walked their bicycles up a steep hill, white
handkerchiefs around their heads to keep the sweat out of their eyes.
"Man, this stinks," Miguel said. "We just got out of school and this is
supposed to be when we have fun, but this is too much. We thought it
would be cooler on the bike, but now we're going home. It's just too
hot."
Added Vincent: "You can't breathe out here."
The hot air is "sitting over the top of us, and it's not really going
to budge much for the next day or two," said Brian Korty, a
meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Camp Springs, Md.
After that, he said, a system coming in off the Atlantic Ocean would
bring in cooler weather.
Authorities in some places Tuesday began calling the hot stretch a heat
wave, a phenomenon defined by at least three consecutive days of
temperatures of 90 or above. Newark handily beat that threshold
Tuesday, hitting at least 100 for the third day in a row.
It was so hot that even machines had to slow down. Transportation
officials cut the speed of commuter trains in suburban Washington when
the tracks got too hot because extreme heat can cause welded rails to
bend under pressure.
Workers at the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, N.J., used
tubs of ice cubes to help four sick or weak seals keep cool.
It wasn't much easier on animal lovers. In Massachusetts, Katie Wright
was determined to follow through on her promise to take her children to
a zoo.
"It's pretty ridiculous," Wright said as her 3-year-old son Jackson and
2-year-old daughter Emery watched owls and hawks at the Massachusetts
Audubon's Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln. "But we wanted to
get out, so we brought hats, sunscreen, extra water and then promised
the kids lunch at an air-conditioned restaurant."
At his Manhattan newsstand, a steel kiosk that soaks up sun like a
sponge, vendor Sam Doctor said the only way to keep cool was to splash
his head with water, but he acknowledged that his system wouldn't last.
Both of his soda-cooling refrigerators had already conked out by
midmorning.
"When it's 100 degrees out there, it's 110 in here," he said, still
smiling as he served customers.
In Philadelphia, where the temperature was in the 80s before 7 a.m.,
45-year-old Davey Adams waited in a subway station that was stagnant
even before the morning commute began in earnest. He had spent the
weekend in air-conditioned bliss at his son's house in New Jersey but
had to return to his job Tuesday as a forklift driver in a warehouse.
He said he planned to use "cold water and a washcloth" draped over his
head to keep cool.
In New York, 13 firefighters were treated at a hospital after suffering
dehydration and exhaustion while battling a blaze in Queens. The
42-year-old lieutenant governor of Massachusetts spent Monday night in
a hospital after marching in five parades in 90-degree heat.
Deaths blamed on the heat included a 92-year-old Philadelphia woman
whose body was found Monday and a homeless woman found lying next to a
car Sunday in suburban Detroit.
In Washington, where the thermometer climbed to 100 degrees by
mid-afternoon, President Barack Obama warned reporters about to leave
the Oval Office: "Stay cool out there. Hydrate."
Even the queen of England, a familiar visitor to exotic and steamy
places, may find summertime on the East Coast a grueling experience.
The 84-year-old monarch landed in New York during the hottest part of
the day on her visit to the city in more than three decades; she
planned to address the United Nations and pay tribute to the victims of
the Sept. 11 attacks
In downtown Philadelphia, pedestrians and drivers appeared to move a
little more slowly in the heat, which combined high humidity with clear
sunny skies that made sidewalks hot and asphalt sticky.
Robert McCarron, 44, wore a navy suit and tie as he walked four blocks
from a downtown subway station to an office building where he was due
for a job interview.
"If I was going to a job" instead of just an interview, he said, "you'd
better believe I wouldn't be wearing a suit. This is rough, and it's
only going to get hotter."