Heat Wave Along East Coast Claims
One Life Updated: 1 day 9 hours ago
(July 6) -- A heat wave along America's East Coast has left one person
dead and sent temperatures soaring into the triple digits, creating
dangerous conditions from North Carolina to Boston.
A
92-year-old Philadelphia woman
has died because of excessive heat exposure, a medical examiner told CNN today.
She did not have an air conditioner. Temperatures in that city are
expected to rise to 101 degrees today.
In New York City, where
the official temperature reached 100 degrees this afternoon, over 2,200
residents in Staten Island have lost power, according to Con Edison. An
outage in the Bronx earlier today left about 1,200 residents without
electricity as well, but only lasted for an hour. And in Virginia, it's
so hot that some train lines are worried about
steel
railroad tracks expanding and causing delays, The Washington Post
reported. According to the National Weather Service, the brutal
temperatures will last through mid-week.
The intense heat is also
prompting cities to open cooling shelters and offices to crank up their
air conditioners -- and sparking fears of more blackouts amid increased
electricity demand.
In New York, Con Edison expects record electricity usage thanks to the
oppressive heat. A spokesman told AOL News today that the company has
extra crews working overtime, and has set up a temporary command center
to monitor reports of outages.
"We've had them on all night," Con
Edison spokesman Chris Olert said today in a phone interview.
"Everybody is working 12-hour shifts."
In a harbinger of what
could be to come, electricity went out across much of Toronto on Monday,
but the cause was traced to a fire at a transformer station rather than
too much volume on the power grid. Still, the outage conjured memories
of the devastating summertime blackout in 2003, when much of the Eastern
U.S. and Canada were plunged into darkness because of an overloaded
grid.
The Toronto outage also hit the Fairmont Royal York Hotel,
where Britain's queen was due to have dinner,
Reuters reported. Power was restored around 6 p.m., after more than an hour of
disruptions to subways, electric buses and streetcars. At one point,
motorists got out of their cars to direct traffic under darkened traffic
lights.
In a harbinger of what could be to come, electricity went out across
much of Toronto on Monday, but the cause was traced to a fire at a
transformer station rather than too much volume on the power grid.
Still, the outage conjured memories of the devastating summertime
blackout in 2003, when much of the Eastern U.S. and Canada were plunged
into darkness because of an overloaded grid.
The Toronto outage
also hit the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, where Britain's queen was due to
have dinner,
Reuters reported. Power was restored around 6 p.m., after more than an hour of
disruptions to subways, electric buses and streetcars. At one point,
motorists got out of their cars to direct traffic under darkened traffic
lights.
AOL Weather: Get Your Forecast With the
masses returning to work after the long Fourth of July weekend, the
fear is that increased energy demand -- with office air conditioners
rumbling at full-blast because of the heat wave -- could push utilities
usage beyond the breaking point.
Olert said Con Edison expects
customers to use a record amount of electricity today. The previous
record was set on August 2, 2006, at 5 p.m.
"We're urging
customers to conserve," Olert said. "We are expecting a record usage but
we're not encouraging it."
About 17,000 customers in northern
New Jersey lost power for more than four hours Monday, but authorities
said they're still investigating the outage's cause and it's not clear
whether it was related to the heat.
An excessive heat advisory
is in effect today for New York and much of the mid-Atlantic area, where
high humidity is expected to combine with hot temperatures to "make it
feel like it is 100 to 104 degrees for two consecutive hours" or more,
the
National
Weather Service said. It is cautioning residents to drink plenty of
fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms and out of the sun, and check in
on relatives and neighbors, particularly the elderly.
In New
York, 100 cooling centers opened Monday and more than 500
air-conditioned public spaces like libraries and community centers will
be available today, said Chris Gilbride, with the New York City Office
of Emergency Management.
"It's hot, and it's going to remain
hot," Gilbride told
USA
Today. People should conserve energy to avoid overtaxing energy
grid systems, he said.
Some electrical appliances hog more
energy than others. According to Con Edison, air conditioners,
dishwashers, and flat screen TVs are some of the worst offenders. "Maybe
wait to do your laundry," Olert suggested.
Summer school classes
in the Philadelphia area are being called off today to ease energy
demand, and children across the country are plunging into pools and
lakes. "It's less hot because you're in the cold water," 6-year-old
Addison Crawford, swimming in Ohio's Maumee Bay, told the
The
Blade of Toledo.
High temperatures over the Independence Day weekend have been blamed for
at least one death, that of a homeless woman in suburban Detroit on
Sunday. The medical examiner's office told the
Detroit
Free Press the 56-year-old woman died of hyperthermia, or an
abnormally high body temperature.
Another victim of the heat
Monday was Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, who was hospitalized after
marching in five parades over the holiday weekend. His spokesman told
news agencies he spent last night in the hospital but is in good
spirits.
Meanwhile, the owner of an ice company in Virginia said
the heat wave means good business for him.
"It's been a
fabulous season for heat," City Ice Co.'s Mark Resnick told the
Richmond
Times-Dispatch. "This is the best year in three years."
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/heat-wave-to-scorch-americas-east-coast-power-blackouts-a-concern/19542787