No relief in South and West from blistering heat

In Dallas, Texas, children find ways to cool off

July 18, 2000
Web posted at: 9:12 a.m. EDT (1312 GMT)

In this story: Hot weather expected to continue Heat effecting workers, inmates RELATED STORIES, SITES

JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) -- Carolyn Sistrunk sees the mercury rise across sun-baked Mississippi with growing concern about her teen-age son, who lives without an air conditioner.

His address is at the State Penitentiary at Parchman, where inmates have only electric fans to keep cool. Many of the state's other prisons also are without air conditioning.

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"I wouldn't put my dog outside today," Sistrunk said Monday as triple-digit temperatures moved in to smother Mississippi and the southern United States. The nation's highest heat index -- a measure of heat and humidity -- was the miserable 125 recorded in Biloxi.

Hot weather expected to continue

No relief was expected anytime soon from the heat wave also baking Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kansas. In drought-withered Alabama, forestry officials took the rare step of banning outdoor burning.

The Dallas County Health Department issued an emergency health alert as temperatures across the Dallas-Fort Worth area topped the century mark for the sixth day in row.

More than 120 towns and cities in Texas have water restrictions because of drought conditions. Residents in Throckmorton are racing to get a 14-mile water pipeline in place before the town's sole water supply dries up, likely in about two months.

In the west Texas town of Wink, where temperatures reached 102 degrees Monday, city secretary Donna Maddux collected fees from sweaty residents in the comfort of an air-conditioned office: "They tell me you can get accustomed to it. But I don't see how."

Although few heat-related injuries have been reported, drought conditions have plagued farmers. In southeast Alabama, which has had only hit-and-miss showers since spring, vast acres of corn have roasted in the fields.

"This is one for the record books," said Henry County farm agent Jimmy Jones. He said some ranchers have been forced to sell cattle early because of pasture damage and the lack of hay.

Heat effecting workers, inmates

While the high temperatures weren't too much out of the ordinary for residents in New Mexico and Arizona, they did force city officials in Hobart, Oklahoma, to instruct city workers to head indoors by the time it reached into the 100s.

Even a day by the water may not afford much relief.

"When we start having heat indexes of 105 to 110, the water is warm and you can't lay out by the pool. It's so doggone hot, you can't stand it," said John Marusak, a spokesman for Point Mallard's water park in Decatur, Alabama, which averages about 2,000 visitors a day in July.

National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Mach said no break is expected in the scorching temperatures at least for the remainder of the week. That was making utility companies hot under the collar.

"Last year, our peak was in August. We passed that figure last week, and could be setting new records every day during this heat wave," said Checky Herrington, communications manager for Entergy Mississippi.

As the mercury hit 105 degrees in Mississippi, families of inmates said readings that high, combined with the state's notorious humidity, make life behind bars unbearable.

"They are human beings," said Sistrunk, whose 19-year-old son is serving time for manslaughter in a car accident death.

But many Mississippians have little sympathy for sweaty inmates, said Rep. Bennett Malone, D-Carthage.

"There are a lot of people who are working, paying their own way, abiding by the law and they don't have air conditioning," said Malone, chairman of the Penitentiary Committee. "We didn't promise all the luxuries when they got sentenced."

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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