Oppressive heat hits battered eastern U.S.

Stifling heat will suffocate the nation from Indiana to Florida on Monday, as millions of people from the Midwest to the East Coast struggle without power for a third straight day.

By Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

Patrick Gonzalez looks over a fallen tree that is blocking a residential street in Washington's Cleveland Park neighborhood on Sunday.

By Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

Patrick Gonzalez looks over a fallen tree that is blocking a residential street in Washington's Cleveland Park neighborhood on Sunday.

A heat wave that began last week will continue to drive temperatures into the 100s from Indianapolis to Atlanta through the Fourth of July holiday Wednesday.

Heat warnings have been issued for parts of Alabama, Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio. In St. Louis, the National Weather Service warned of "dangerous heat" as temperatures climb to 106 Monday.

Already, the heat wave has "broken hundreds of daily records and quite a few all-time records," said Weather Service meteorologist Katie LaBelle. "The heat is actually a very significant threat, especially with all the power outages. Coming behind that storm, with all the damage it caused, reacting to the heat is a high priority, making sure people can find cool places while they wait for the power to come back on."

Temperatures topped 109 in Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky over the weekend. Meteorologists in Jacksonville said the combination of 100-degree temperatures and high humidity there made it feel like 118.

Power companies said late Sunday it could take up to a week to restore electricity to more than 3 million who lost power after a ferocious summer storm cut a swath of destruction Friday night across 11 states, killing 14 people, toppling trees, knocking out traffic lights, and sending thousands of people to shelters and into community pools to escape the heat.

Some states declared emergencies and activated disaster-response agencies. Governors in New Jersey and Ohio called out the National Guard. The Department of Energy reported Sunday afternoon that 2.6 million people still lacked power. About 596,000 were without power in Maryland; 642,000 in Virginia; 61,000 in Washington, D.C.; 74,000 in Indiana; 700,000 in Ohio; 510,000 in West Virginia; and 125,000 in New Jersey.

First Energy said 560,000 of its customers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia lost electricity. The company predicted it would need a week to restore power to the hardest hit areas, particularly in West Virginia, where the storm damaged more than 50 transmission lines and 70 substations.

Officials focused on the most vulnerable residents: children, the sick and the elderly.

In Washington, D.C., officials canceled summer school for Monday as they continued to assess storm damage. The city opened libraries and recreation centers and extended the hours at community pools to give residents without power respite from the heat. The city dispatched National Guard troops to powerless intersections to direct traffic and keep people away from debris and downed power lines.

In Ohio, where an 80-mph wind collapsed a barn, killing a 70-year-old woman, National Guard troops mobilized to check neighborhoods for people needing help while residents without power gathered at malls, movie theaters and churches. At the Plains-Athens Community Church of the Nazarene in southeast Ohio, families on Sunday watched movies, played board games and cooled off with donated ice cream.

Maryland opened 74 cooling stations to help residents cope with the heat and was canvassing hospitals and nursing homes to ensure they have enough power to keep elderly and sick residents cool, Maryland Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ed McDonough said. The number of people without power is similar to power outages following hurricanes, he said.

"That's still an awful lot of people without power in the extreme heat we're having now," McDonough said. "It's still an event that's going to take days instead of hours. We didn't have the kind of warning you have with hurricane so they couldn't stage repair crews ahead of time."

In Virginia, where Gov. Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency, the storm knocked out the 9-1-1 system. O'Donnell said the storms caused the most widespread, non-hurricane-related power outage in that state's history. A wastewater treatment plant in Lynchburg lost power and discharged at least 250,000 gallons of water into the James River.

"This is not a one-day situation," McDonnell said. "It is a multiday challenge."

John Swift who lost power at his home in a Richmond suburb toughed out the power outage without complaint. The heat, he said, was the "biggest nuisance."

"I've got a camp stove. I've got cold showers. I don't watch TV. It's not a big deal," said Swift, 60.

Extreme heat in Colorado hampered firefighters as they tackled a patchwork of wildfires across the state. At Pine Ridge, 13 miles east of Grand Junction in the Bookcliffs, fire authorities said hot, dry conditions with southwest wind heightened the potential for "extreme fire behavior, intensity and growth."

The fire, which began with a lightning strike on June 27, has burned nearly 13,000 acres. Firefighters struggled to contain a massive fire in Waldo Canyon, three miles west of Colorado Springs, which has destroyed 346 homes and threatens 20,000 more. The city has canceled Fourth of July fireworks.

"The city is currently in extreme fire danger due to lack of moisture, heat and wind," city officials said in a press release.

In Dublin, Ohio, Lori Schaffert used a borrowed generator to alternately power her refrigerator and freezer while her 5-year-old daughter and a friend played board games and helped her make pickles from their garden's cucumbers.

"You come to appreciate the simple life a little more in these times," she said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Chill falls across eastern half of U.S. (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Cool winds coming out of Canada pushed temperatures lower across much of the eastern United States on Saturday and forecasters said residents in some higher East Coast elevations could see chilly rain turn into snow flurries before the weekend was over.

Rain was falling across the Northeast from New England all the way down to West Virginia, and forecasters at AccuWeather.com said some of that could turn snow in higher elevations in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and North Carolina overnight.

New York City, where the Yankees are scheduled to resume Game 1 of the American League Division Series playoffs tonight, was dry. On Friday night, the game was suspended in the middle of the second inning with the teams tied 1-1 because of rain.

A warm front in the Midwest, meanwhile, was expected to bring temperatures in that region back to comfortable, early summer-like levels next week before moving into the east, and could give Chicago its first string of days in the 70s in several weeks.

But on Saturday, the Midwest was enduring yet another day of below average temperatures.

In Chicago, where the normal average high this time of year is 68 degrees Fahrenheit, forecasters predicted Saturday's temperature would top out in the mid 50s and warned the western suburbs, away from the relatively warm waters of Lake Michigan, might see their first widespread frost of the season.

"We're going to be 10 degrees below the normal high and then well below the normal lows as well," said Ben Deubelbeiss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chicago.

"Then, as early as Monday, we'll see temperatures rebound -- as a big upper level ridge builds overhead and brings up some warmer air from the southwest."

The high winds that whipped up big waves on the Great Lakes on Friday, shutting down shoreline parks and trails in Wisconsin and Illinois, had largely subsided on Saturday.

Chicago's 18.5 mile lakefront bike and running path, closed on Friday as giant waves smashed onto the shore, was back open -- though gusts coming off the lake continued to churn the waters and make them dangerous for swimming.

Thousands of people were still without power in Wisconsin and Michigan, according to utility companies in both states, as a result of damage caused by Friday's strong winds.

In Door County, Wisconsin, a picturesque peninsula that juts out into northern Lake Michigan and is popular this time of year with tourists seeking fall color, all state parks and trails remained closed as a result of downed trees and unsafe conditions, the state Department of Natural Resources said.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Monsoon flooding kills 16 in eastern India (AP)

BHUBANESHWAR, India – Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 16 people in eastern India and left nearly 100,000 others homeless, an official said Monday.

Incessant rains have hit the coastal and western parts of Orissa state for 10 days and nearly 2,800 villages have been affected, said S.N. Patra, the minister in charge of disaster management.

The rain stopped in most areas by Sunday evening, but the region's main river, the Mahanadi, remained over the danger mark on Monday and about 800 villages were still cut off, Patra said.

He said the government has set up about 180 relief camps and army helicopters were dropping food and water packets for people stranded in remote villages.

The loss to crops and property is still being assessed, he said.

Patra said the deaths occurred over the last four days.

India's monsoon season, which runs from June through September, brings rains that are vital to agriculture but can also cause massive destruction.

Flooding, landslides and other rain-related events kill thousands of people each year.

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Strong quake hits eastern Japan, no tsunami threat (AP)

TOKYO – Officials say a strong earthquake has hit near Japan's eastern coast, but there is no danger of a tsunami.

Japan's Meteorological Agency says the quake struck Monday evening and registered a preliminary magnitude of 6.0. It was centered off the coast of Ibaraki, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) east of Tokyo, at a depth of 20 miles (30 kilometers).

The agency says there is no danger of a tsunami. No injuries or damage have been reported.

Some 20,000 people died or were left missing across Japan's northeastern coast after a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The disaster damaged a nuclear power plant, forcing another 100,000 people to leave their homes because of a radiation threat.

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Heat wave starts to ebb in eastern half of country (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The heat wave that has embroiled half of the continental United States in triple digit temperatures this week still had southern areas sizzling on Wednesday but spared much of the Northeast.

The National Weather Service said dangerously hot and humid weather would continue across much of the South and the south-central region, and issued heat advisories for 11 states.

"The heat wave is beginning to break down in some parts and it's not as expansive as it was yesterday," said Chris Vaccaro, spokesman for the weather service.

Counties in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia received excessive heat warnings, indicating the mix of heat and humidity could cause heat illnesses.

There will be a risk of thunderstorms through the central and southern states. Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi could see severe thunderstorms with high winds and hail.

On Tuesday, the national high in the United States was in Fort Smith, Arkansas, which hit 108 degrees as a forest raged in two counties elsewhere in the state.

Arkansas fire crews created a containment line for a 540-acre fire in Garland and Saline Counties that had raced out of control on Tuesday near the Ouachita National Forest but was nearly suppressed on Wednesday.

The Arkansas Forestry Commission has designated southern Arkansas near the Louisiana border as a high fire danger risk area. Burn bans were in effect for 35 of 75 counties in the state, a number that will likely increase, officials said.

RAIN PROVIDES RELIEF

A rainstorm that drenched Oklahoma City with a record 2.91 inches provided some temporary cooling there, but temperatures will be hovering near 100 degrees through early next week.

Oklahoma, which hit record highs on five days in June, is not unaccustomed to 100-degree temperatures in the summer, but the recent streak of hot temperatures is unusual, according to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.

Despite the recent rainfall, the city is in the midst of a prolonged drought, and mandatory restrictions on lawn watering were imposed on Monday for the first time in over a decade.

The problem isn't that the state's largest city doesn't have enough water. But the city can't process and treat it fast enough to keep up with demand, said Debbie Ragan, spokeswoman for the city's utility department.

A northern cold front that pushed across the Great Lakes and Northeast has driven down the thermometer while making it less humid, according to the Weather Channel.

"High temperatures today range from the 'chilly' 60s and 70s from western Pennsylvania to northern New England to the hot and humid 90s in southern Virginia," said Kevin Roth, lead meteorologist for The Weather Channel.

In the South, high temperatures will mostly be in the 90s to near 105, with indices of 95 to 115.

On Wednesday morning, around 186,000 customers remained without power in the Chicago area from the severe storm that left a record 868,000 customers in the dark on Monday, according to Tony Hernandez, spokesman for ComEd, the utility company servicing the area.

(Additional reporting by Karin Matz in Chicago, Steve Olafson in Oklahoma, Suzi Parks in Little Rock; Editing by Jerry Norton and Cynthia Johnston)

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Floods cut phones in eastern Mont.; rains continue (AP)

BILLINGS, Mont. – Flooding is disrupting emergency phone service across a broad swath of eastern Montana as some areas remain inundated with several feet of water.

Heavy rains again pounded parts of the state on Memorial Day.

Flooding near Hardin on Sunday brought down 911 and long-distance calls for Glendive, Miles City, Sidney, Fairview, Colstrip, Forsyth, Wibaux and Terry.

Qwest spokeswoman Michelle Jackson says all emergency calls are being rerouted and full service is expected to be restored Monday.

In Roundup, some houses and businesses remain under several feet of water from the Musselshell River. It's expected to crest Saturday.

Authorities warn the record-breaking floods could extend into northwestern Montana in coming days. Warmer weather in the forecast could trigger the sudden melt of record winter snows.

In South Dakota, another 200 National Guard soldiers were being called Monday to help battle flooding along the Missouri River, bringing the total to more than 600.

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