More deaths as killer heat wave nears end

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - A record-breaking U.S. heat wave that has killed more than 150 people nationwide in the past two weeks claimed two more victims on August 3 just as relief was due.

The heat, which has moved east from California, also prompted record electricity demand and continued to force New York businesses to dim their Times Square billboards as part of a citywide conservation effort.

"We have had more record-breaking heat today, a lot of it in New York state," National Weather Service meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said.

All three of the New York City area's major airports reported August 3 records of 99 to 100 F (38 C). Baltimore, at 100 F, and Bridgeport, Connecticut, at 97 F (36 C), were among other Northeast cities breaking records, Feltgen said.

"The relief is coming on down. Boston will feel it tomorrow, New York will feel it tomorrow, Philadelphia will begin to feel it later tomorrow and we will begin to feel it in Washington and Baltimore tomorrow night and certainly on Saturday," he said.

Kansas City began to cool on August 3 and St. Louis and Indianapolis got relief on August 4, he said.

In Newark, New Jersey, a husband and wife aged 66 and 65 were found dead in their living room with the windows closed and no air conditioning, said Desiree Peterkin Bell, a spokeswoman for the Newark mayor's office.

In response, the city extended the hours at municipal "cooling centers" where the elderly can escape the heat.

One inmate in Indiana State Prison's disciplinary unit died from excess heat on August 1 and another prisoner died there on July 30 from heart failure aggravated by the hot weather, prison spokesman Barry Nothstine said.

One of them had been due to be released in November after serving his time for child molestation.

Inmates in the unit were offered extra bottled water and as many cold showers as they wanted, Nothstine said.