As Richmond, Va., residents sweltered in 100-degree heat \u2014 just one degree short of a 1940 record \u2014 radio station WKHK played Christmas carols.
\n\u201cThe phones just went bananas,\u201d said Jim Tice, the country-music station\u2019s program director. \u201cPeople really appreciated the cooling effect.\u201d
\nLower temperatures seemed light years away Wednesday as the East Coast soared into the upper 90s for a fourth straight day. The stubborn, dangerous heat wave sickened hundreds of people at the Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia, forced the Navy to cancel battleship tours and kept workers in their air-conditioned offices.
\nAt Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, about 300 people \u2014 most of them Boy Scouts \u2014 fell ill while waiting for President Bush to arrive for the Jamboree.
\nSoldiers carried some on stretchers to the base hospital and others were airlifted out for treatment. Dozens were still being treated Wednesday night, Jamboree spokesman Gregg Shields said. Bush postponed his visit because of storms.
\nThe Navy closed the USS Wisconsin, a battleship on display to the public in Norfolk, Va., when the temperature on the warship\u2019s deck hit 120 degrees.
\nDelivery crews and street vendors were among the few people willing to stay out on the scorching streets.
\n\u201cI drink tons and tons of water, I wear a wet towel around my neck when I drive and just deal with it,\u201d said UPS driver Hugh Kovacs, 43, after making a delivery to a convenience store in Northfield, N.J.
\nSome relief arrived Wednesday evening as a strong cold front moved into the East.
\nIn central Maryland, thunderstorms rumbled through the region, downing trees and cutting power to thousands of utility customers, even as it cooled temperatures.
\nWednesday\u2019s unofficial high temperature at Baltimore\u2019s Inner Harbor was 99 degrees, but by 9 p.m., the temperature had dropped to 79.
\nThe heat was blamed for at least 29 deaths in the Phoenix area; at least four in Missouri; two in New Jersey; two in Oklahoma and one each in Kentucky, Ohio and Mississippi.
\nThe heat also was blamed for at least 1,200 cattle deaths in Nebraska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Richmond, Va., residents sweltered in 100-degree heat \u2014 just one degree short of a 1940 record \u2014 radio station WKHK played Christmas carols. \u201cThe phones just went bananas,\u201d said Jim Tice, the country-music station\u2019s program director. \u201cPeople really appreciated the cooling effect.\u201d Lower temperatures seemed light years away Wednesday as the East Coast soared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}