Cities Conserve Power Ahead of Heat Wave

By SAMANTHA GROSS

NEW YORK – The famed necklace lights lining the city’s East River bridges will remain off to save power as the city braces for potentially record breaking heat – one of many conservation tactics across the country during soaring temperatures from the Midwest to the Northeast.

With heat and humidity expected to reach unsafe levels Tuesday, New York City residents braced for blistering temperatures and officials warned that inhaling the city’s heavy summer air could become dangerously difficult.

"It’s going to be very difficult to breathe. The air is going to be very thick," said Nancy Figueroa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "The young and the old should be very careful to stay in cool places, because it’s very dangerous."

Things weren’t much better in other parts of the country.

Heat that blistered California last week hung over the Midwest on Monday, prompting communities to throw air-conditioned buildings open to the public and endangering millions of people with outdoor jobs.

Temperatures across the Midwest and Plains flirted with or exceeded 100 degrees, and the heat index – a measure of temperature plus humidity – passed 110 degrees in spots. The National Weather Service issued heat warnings for such cities as Chicago; Cincinnati; Dayton, Ohio; and Tulsa, Okla.

The Midwest could get some relief by Wednesday, but the worst of the heat was expected to drift east on Tuesday, bringing scorching temperatures to New York, Washington and Boston.

In Cleveland, temperatures climbed so high by evening rush hour that the city closed a bridge over the Cuyahoga River because the heat was causing the steel to expand and the bridge’s parts could not fit properly together.

In California, the sweltering heat that punished the state for two weeks subsided, but the number of confirmed or suspected heat-related deaths climbed to 164 as county coroners worked through a backlog of cases.

In Chicago, officials made available a special telephone line to request checks on vulnerable neighbors and friends. The Department of Human Services and police responded to nearly 50 such requests by early Monday. The city’s Department of Aging also telephoned more than 300 senior citizens to offer help, such as rides to cooling centers.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office reported two heat-related deaths in suburban Chicago on Monday. Both victims were men with heart disease, which contributed to their deaths along with heat stress. And authorities told the (Peoria) Journal Star that a 39-year-old man central Illinois man whose family said he took medication that prevented him from sweating died Monday after falling asleep in the small trailer where he lived.

In Oklahoma, authorities reported two more deaths that happened over the weekend. In Missouri, at least 14 deaths since July 12 are blamed on the heat after a 71-year-old woman died in St. Louis during the weekend, Brian Quinn, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said Monday.

In New York, the necklace lights were scheduled to go back on this week but now will remain dark indefinitely, officials said. They were turned off during a 10-day blackout that affected an estimated 100,000 people in parts of northwest Queens.

The heat index, a measure of temperature plus humidity, was expected to rise to between 106 and 111 degrees on Tuesday, Figueroa said. The service issued an air stagnation advisory and an excessive heat warning for parts of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Faced with predictions of triple-digit temperatures, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a heat emergency order Monday directing city agencies to take additional steps to protect residents.

"I urge all New Yorkers, especially seniors, to try to beat the heat by drinking plenty of water, staying out of the sun, avoiding strenuous activity, and taking advantage of city cooling centers and public pools," Bloomberg said.

The National Weather Service predicted that Tuesday temperatures could break the record for the date, set in 1933 when the temperature in Central Park rose to 100 degrees. The day’s highest reading was expected to be between 98 and 101 degrees, Figueroa said.

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On the Net:

Cooling Centers: http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/hazards/heat-cooling.shtml