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Friday August 17, 2007 7:46 AM By BETH RUCKER Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Unrelenting heat that has baked the Midwest and
South for the past 10 days has killed more than three dozen people, even
forcing officials Thursday to shut down part of a nuclear reactor in
Alabama because the river water used to cool it was too hot.
In Tennessee, the Shelby County medical examiner's office confirmed
Thursday that heat caused the death of a 53-year-old man found in his
apartment the day before, bringing the death toll in Memphis alone to eight. In all, 37 deaths in the South and Midwest have been confirmed as
heat-related, and heat is suspected in 10 more, authorities said. In Memphis, the mercury topped out at 105 degrees Thursday, a record and
the seventh consecutive day of triple-digit temperatures. Shelby County
Mayor A C Wharton Jr. compared the heat wave to a devastating earthquake
and set up a hotline for people to report concerns and request fans. ``This is pretty akin to a seismic event in the sense that there is no
remedy, no solution that we here in this room can come up with that will
take care of everybody,'' he said. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public utility,
shut down one of three units at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in
Athens, Ala., because water drawn from the Tennessee River was exceeding
a 90-degree average over 24 hours. ``We don't believe we've ever shut down a nuclear unit because of river
temperature,'' said John Moulton, spokesman for the Knoxville,
Tenn.-based utility. The shutdown posed no safety threat, officials said. The TVA will
compensate for the loss of power by buying power elsewhere, Moulton said. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said Thursday that
the heat caused nine deaths there and likely caused another seven. Six
of the nine confirmed deaths are in St. Louis. There were also eight confirmed deaths in Illinois, four each in
Arkansas and Georgia, two in South Carolina and one in Mississippi, as
well as one death in Tennessee outside Memphis. In north-central Arkansas, the temperature reached 112 degrees on
Wednesday in a place called Evening Shade. ``It's miserable,'' said Sharp County Judge Larry Brown, the county's
chief administrative officer. Road crews were working shorter hours,
``coming in early and leaving at noon. By then it's already way over 100
anyway,'' Brown said. At midafternoon Thursday it was 107, Brown said. ``It's still like an
oven,'' he said. In Alabama, state climatologist John Christy said the string of 10
consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures is amazing. Fifty-four
people were treated in Alabama hospitals Wednesday and Thursday for
heat-related illnesses, State Health Officer Don Williamson said. In northern Indiana, the National Weather Service confirmed two
tornadoes struck late Wednesday near the town of Argos, about 30 miles
south of South Bend, causing limited damage. Some 36,500 homes and
businesses in Lake County remained without electricity Thursday evening,
with Northern Indiana Public Service Co. estimating it would be Monday
before all power would be restored in Gary. Residents in southern Indiana got a little relief from the heat as
thunderstorms moved in - Evansville went from 104 degrees Wednesday to
99 degrees Thursday. Even people who consider themselves healthy can be vulnerable to
heat-related health problems after an extended period of excessive heat,
medical authorities say. Emergency physicians warned that days of heat-related stress can lead to
problems such as nausea, dizziness, headaches, cramps and vomiting for
people who otherwise are healthy. Those symptoms are the first signs of
heat exhaustion. ``It is a cumulative thing,'' Dr. Franc Fenaughty, an emergency room
physician in the Memphis suburb of Germantown, told The Commercial
Appeal newspaper. ``After four or five or six days you are going to see
more people get dehydrated. And, the big problem is dehydration.'' Last summer, a heat wave killed at least 50 people in the Midwest and
East. California officially reported a death toll of 143, but
authorities last month admitted the number may have been far higher. A
1995 heat wave in Chicago was blamed for 700 deaths.
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