East braces for searing temps as heat wave lingers

[July 22, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Northeasterners were bracing themselves for another day of searing temperatures, as the heat wave that has cooked the central and eastern parts of the country for days lingers on.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings for a huge section of the country, from Kansas to Maine, forecasting temperatures near or at triple digits Friday and into the weekend.

The high temperatures and smothering humidity will force up the heat indexes. Boston's 99 degrees on Friday could feel like 105 degrees; Philadelphia's 102 degrees like 114 degrees and Washington, D.C.'s 103 degrees may seem the same as a melting 116 degrees.

In New York, people looking to beat the heat were thwarted by warnings urging them to avoid city waterways after a wastewater treatment plant disabled by fire began spewing millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Hudson River.

Officials cautioned against swimming and bathing at Staten Island's South Beach, Midland Beach and Cedar Grove Beach, and Brooklyn's Sea Gate beach, especially for people with medical conditions.

Across the country, emergency room visits were way up, according to public health officials, mainly because of people suffering from heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

The weather is suspected of contributing to a number of deaths nationwide. At least six more fatalities were reported Thursday, including a Michigan restaurant cook who suffered a heart attack after being sent home from his job and a teenage boy who drowned while swimming at summer camp in the same state.

A Pittsburgh man slipped as he worked on the roof of his cousin's home on Thursday and found himself stuck for nearly two hours because of the hot tar he'd been using.

Lamont Robinson said the slick tar kept him from climbing to safety after he slipped. He said he was "baking like a turkey" before his rescue. Temperatures were in the low 90s.

In Connecticut, a dozen Girl Scouts were treated for heat-related problems at a scout camp.

None of the girls required hospitalization, but New Fairfield First Selectman John Hodge says they spent Thursday night in the camp's cafeteria after workers brought in industrial fans to help cool them off.

A blown electrical transformer in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale forced several senior citizens to sleep in the community room of their six-story apartment building Wednesday night after the power failed.

On Thursday morning, Lisa Blumentritt ventured back into her third-floor unit.

"You couldn't breathe," she said at a nearby cooling center. "It's like 100 outside and 110 degrees inside. I couldn't go back there. This is extreme."

While the current heat wave has recorded 12 all-time daily highs so far this month, it also has registered 98 all-time overnight highs, the NOAA reported at a briefing Thursday.

In Chicago Thursday night, hundreds of children and more than a few adults cavorted in a shallow pool of the Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millinium Park. Temperatures hovered around 90 degrees in the park, about half mile from the shores of Lake Michigan.

Christopher and Renee Mickles said they came out in the evening to give their 3-year-old a little exercise after being cooped up in their air-conditioned house.

"It didn't cool off, but at least the sun isn't out," he said.

[Associated Press; By TOM McELROY]

Associated Press writers Randolph E. Schmid in Washington, John Seewer in Toledo, Herb McCann in Chicago and Corey Williams in Ferndale contributed to this report.

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