EDITORIAL.- A scorching heat to which at least 13 deaths are attributed in Texas and another in Louisiana spread across southeastern Wednesday USA, extending dangerous temperature warnings as far east as Mississippi and Tennessee.
Meanwhile, California was facing its first major heat wave of the year. The National Weather Service warned that dry, hot and windy conditions could cause dangerous fires in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
Temperatures were forecast to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) across much of the Southeast and high humidity was forecast to push heat indices above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius) in some areas.
Persistent power outages brought by weekend storms compounded heat-related suffering in Arkansas. More than 10,000 residents were still without power in the central part of the state. In Cabot, northeast of Little Rock, a local senior center provided fresh air and a place to charge phones and tablets for those without power.
“Usually I only come in at noon for lunch,” said Clint Hickman, who was still waiting for the power to come back on. “It’s good to get some fresh air, so I came a little earlier,” he added in a phone interview on Wednesday.
Among the victims was a man who died Sunday night in Shreveport, Louisiana, the second heat-related death in the state in an unusually warm June. The 49-year-old man from the neighboring city of Bossier was found lying on a sidewalk in Shreveport, where the temperature on Sunday reached 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit, 10 degrees warmer than the average for the date).
The death of a 62-year-old woman on June 21 in Keithville was also blamed on heat. Her relatives found her after several days without power due to previous heavy storms, the Caddo Parish coroner’s office said.
FUENTE: With information from AP
