kong
07-07-2012, 04:52 PM
Extreme Heat Bakes Midwest, Parts of East Coast
Highways buckled in Illinois and Wisconsin, water use was cut back in Indiana and those who had power in the mid-Atlantic were urged to conserve it, but the heat gripping much of the country was only expected to worsen Saturday. Temperatures of more than 100 degrees were forecast in Philadelphia, authorities warned of excessive heat in the Midwest and the power outages surpassed a week in the mid-Atlantic, where extreme heat was expected into the weekend. A major storm in the area last week left behind damage, which combined with the high demand for power to stress the electrical system's capabilities, a Washington-area utility said. Hundreds of thousands remained without power Friday night in the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic, mostly in West Virginia. Tens of thousands were still without power in the Midwest as well after storms there this week. Utilities hoped to restore service over the weekend in Michigan, where temperatures were forecast in the 90s. One man in the state figured out a way to beat the heat: stay in the car. That was the plan for 60-year-old Roger Sinclair of Batavia, Ill., who was headed home Saturday morning from Detroit, the city of his birth. Sinclair, a dispatcher at a plumbing company's call center, visited the Motor City over the past few days to see an old friend and catch Friday night's Tigers game. Relief was on the way in the form of a cold front as the weekend ends, but forecasters expected it to bring severe weather, too. The rain should help dry spells in many places. Much of Arkansas is enduring brown grass and seeing trees lose their green, and farmers in Ohio are growing concerned about the dry conditions, considered among the worst of the past decade. Residents of and visitors to the tiny hamlet of Hell, Mich., had their own ways of dealing with the high temperatures.
"Every day is a good day to be in Hell," said businessman John Colone, the community's unofficial mayor, who owns a canoe and kayak rental and Scream's Ice Cream. "More people have told you to go to our town than anywhere else on Earth." Colone said the number of people heading out on the lake recently was lower than normal. "It's just been so hot," he said. Still, Colone said, he's encountered a number of tourists who wanted to say they'd been to Hell on one of the hottest days of the year.
Highways buckled in Illinois and Wisconsin, water use was cut back in Indiana and those who had power in the mid-Atlantic were urged to conserve it, but the heat gripping much of the country was only expected to worsen Saturday. Temperatures of more than 100 degrees were forecast in Philadelphia, authorities warned of excessive heat in the Midwest and the power outages surpassed a week in the mid-Atlantic, where extreme heat was expected into the weekend. A major storm in the area last week left behind damage, which combined with the high demand for power to stress the electrical system's capabilities, a Washington-area utility said. Hundreds of thousands remained without power Friday night in the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic, mostly in West Virginia. Tens of thousands were still without power in the Midwest as well after storms there this week. Utilities hoped to restore service over the weekend in Michigan, where temperatures were forecast in the 90s. One man in the state figured out a way to beat the heat: stay in the car. That was the plan for 60-year-old Roger Sinclair of Batavia, Ill., who was headed home Saturday morning from Detroit, the city of his birth. Sinclair, a dispatcher at a plumbing company's call center, visited the Motor City over the past few days to see an old friend and catch Friday night's Tigers game. Relief was on the way in the form of a cold front as the weekend ends, but forecasters expected it to bring severe weather, too. The rain should help dry spells in many places. Much of Arkansas is enduring brown grass and seeing trees lose their green, and farmers in Ohio are growing concerned about the dry conditions, considered among the worst of the past decade. Residents of and visitors to the tiny hamlet of Hell, Mich., had their own ways of dealing with the high temperatures.
"Every day is a good day to be in Hell," said businessman John Colone, the community's unofficial mayor, who owns a canoe and kayak rental and Scream's Ice Cream. "More people have told you to go to our town than anywhere else on Earth." Colone said the number of people heading out on the lake recently was lower than normal. "It's just been so hot," he said. Still, Colone said, he's encountered a number of tourists who wanted to say they'd been to Hell on one of the hottest days of the year.