FLORIDA (AP) — Communities from Houston to New Orleans have opened cooling centers to bring people relief from soaring temperatures Saturday across a wide swath of the southern United States.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, for his part, visited Perryton, where authorities said a tornado killed three people Thursday and left more than 1,000 customers without power. The Perryton Ochiltree Chamber of Commerce said it would open a cooling center in the town of 8,000, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Amarillo, to counter the effects of the high temperatures that followed the storm.
Abbott said he was shocked to see how much the city had been destroyed and praised what he called “non-stop heroic efforts by health care providers” who he said treated 160 wounded at the local hospital which has only 25 beds. .
W. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, warned that more bad weather was expected in the area on Saturday, with rain, high winds and possibly more tornadoes.
The National Weather Service issued excessive heat advisories through Saturday night along the coast from Brownsville to Houston, Texas. Wind chills ranged from 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius) in Houston to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) in Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Texas. Cooling shelters were installed in coastal and inland cities for residents who lost power.
“What’s really going on is moisture,” said Allison Prater of the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, Texas. “That’s making the wind chill really shoot up.”
Prater said Saturday air temperatures in the Dallas metropolitan area could reach 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius), but high humidity would make it feel like 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius).
The reason we’re getting so hot is that there’s a lot of moisture being washed in from the Gulf of Mexico,” Prater said. “That’s working with the warmer temperatures to induce … that wind chill.”
Two women and an 11-year-old boy were killed when the tornado struck Perryton. On Saturday, authorities upgraded the intensity of the tornado to EF-3, with winds up to 140 mph (225 km/h).
Ochiltree County Sheriff Terry Bouchard told KVII-TV in Amarillo that missing persons had been located.
“It fell right on top of Perryton,” Bouchard said. “We have lost many houses, businesses, rental properties. There is a lot of damage in our community and it is going to take some time to clean this up.”
In Louisiana, the National Weather Service forecast daytime temperatures through Monday of about 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius), with high humidity and wind chills as high as 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius).
The city of New Orleans opened cooling centers and hydration stations, and advised residents to take precautions if spending time outdoors: wear light, loose-fitting clothing, take frequent breaks to rest in the shade or in airy environments conditioning and drink plenty of water.
Entergy New Orleans and the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board suspended power shutoffs to defaulters through Tuesday.
In Florida, Clearwater city officials said in an email that a waterspout came ashore Friday afternoon “sending beach-related items flying through the air” and injuring two people.
According to authorities, a 70-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man were treated at a local hospital for minor injuries. Their identities were not made public.
The National Weather Service in Miami issued a heat advisory until 7 p.m. Saturday for most of the South Florida area, where the combination of heat and humidity was forecast to create a wind chill of 40.5 degrees Celsius (105 °F).
Air temperatures in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, were forecast to reach about 92 °F (33 °C) on Saturday.
