National
Guard members fanned out through darkened city streets in St. Louis, clearing debris
and looking for residents who needed help evacuating their sweltering
homes after storms knocked out power during a deadly heat wave.
Carrying bottled water and cookies for those needing quick
pick-me-ups Thursday, guardsmen joined firefighters, police and
volunteers in searching primarily for elderly residents living in the
city’s older brick homes that one health official likened to a furnace
in the summer.
Gov. Matt Blunt called in the Guard the same day the city was
declared a disaster area after storms and power outages that affected
500,000 customers. The city was the latest to suffer from a heat wave
that has baked the nation this week, contributing to at least 22 deaths
in 10 states.
The city got a meteorological punch: a massive storm that knocked
out power — and with it, air conditioning — followed by another day of
near-triple-digit heat.
The forecast for Friday offered hope — the high was expected to
reach only the upper 80s, with another round of thunderstorms possible.
Forecasters expect the milder weather to continue into next week.
Among the Guardsmen helping was Sgt. Ralph Zahner, who spent part of
last year in Iraq, then helped out in the Gulf Coast after hurricanes
Katrina and Rita.
“So this is nothing new,” said Zahner, 38, a 21-year veteran of the Guard. “We’re glad to help.”
Utility companies were still struggling to restore power. By
Thursday evening, electricity had been restored to 160,000 customers in
St. Louis, but new reports of outages kept coming in. The day’s high
temperature was 97 degrees, but the humidity made it feel like 111.
The evacuated residents were taken to “cooling centers” after leaving their homes.
“We can’t overemphasize the danger of this heat,” Mayor Francis Slay
said. “The longer the heat goes on and the power is out, the riskier it
is.”
Utility workers urged customers to find a cool place to stay. St.
Louis-based AmerenUE, which serves Missouri and Illinois, warned that
power could be out for some customers into next week.
Around the region, people began cleanup from Wednesday’s storms that
brought 80 mph winds and heavy rain. In St. Louis, the storms tore off
a section of airport roof and dumped it on a highway. Windows were
blown out of a hotel restaurant and a press box at baseball’s Busch
Stadium. At least three buildings collapsed, and more than 30 people
were injured.
Then there was the heat.
John Swapshire, 39, grabbed the next-to-last window fan at a
hardware store for $14.99. The electricity at his home was out, but he
had a gas-powered generator.
“I had to go to six stores to get this. They were either closed
because of the electricity or sold out,” Swapshire said. “I don’t think
you can buy a cube of ice in all of St. Louis, either.”
Stanley Shelton, 53, found a cool spot under a tree in a downtown
park where piles of broken limbs and branches covered the grass.
“I’ll just sit in my yard with a big jug of water and wait for it to
pass,” Shelton said. “Maybe I’ll take a couple cold showers. That works
too.”
Hospital emergency rooms and city health clinics reported a large number of people complaining of heat-related illnesses.
The heat has contributed to at least 22 deaths across the country,
including a 93-year-old St. Louis woman who had air conditioning but no
power.
Medical examiners were determining whether the death of a
92-year-old Independence man whose air conditioning had stopped working
was heat-related, and an East St. Louis, Ill., man died while walking
near downed power lines.
Other deaths were reported in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma,
Arkansas, Indiana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Kansas and Wisconsin.
___
Associated Press writers Jeff Douglas, Cheryl Wittenauer and Jim Suhr contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press
