EVENT WILL LACK SHOW OF HANDS IN DESERT AREA

Hands Across America developed its first sanctioned gap this weekend when organizers declared a 94-mile stretch of hot, barren desert west of Phoenix too hot to handle.

“We felt it was safer than possibly killing people,” Hands press secretary Miriam Alexander told The Times on Sunday.

The transcontinental line originally envisioned by Hands Across America creator Ken Kragen would have stretched 4,125 continuous miles, from New York to Long Beach.

It will still stretch most of that distance, organizers predict, but the 100-degree-plus temperatures in Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas could make sections of the desert segment of the line a major health threat. Alexander said there could be more desert gaps as next Sunday’s deadline approaches, but for now the official Hands no-man’s land is between Tonopah (56 miles west of Phoenix) and Ehrenberg, Ariz. Alexander said that rope, banners or some other connecting tissue will still fill the desert stretch, but touching hands won’t.

“It would be morally real irresponsible of us to ask people to do that,” Alexander said.

As of Sunday, an estimated 2.5 million had signed up to stand in line, Alexander said. Participants are being asked to pledge $10, $25 or $35, though Kragen has been telling people at rallies for the past several days that they may join the line regardless of whether they pay.

Alexander said that Hands Across America has probably grossed about $20 million as of this weekend. After meeting expenses of about $12 million, the USA for Africa Foundation (which created and oversees Hands Across America) hopes to raise between $25 million and $50 million in donations to aid the homeless and hungry in the United States.

Alexander said pledges seem to spurt with each new televised presentation about the Hands Across America project. A segment featuring Kragen that aired Thursday on the ABC television newsmagazine “20/20” created phone frenzy in the Hands offices in Century City on Friday morning. Alexander said the “dozens and dozens” of phone volunteers were answering calls almost nonstop over the weekend.

A new blitz of Coca-Cola-sponsored television commercials featuring Kenny Rogers will flood the airwaves this week. Between 5.5 million and 5.8 million people are needed to complete the linkup and, with such commercials encouraging a last-minute rush of sign-ups Hands officials expect to come very close to meeting their goal.

Just within the past week, an estimated 1 million new sign-ups have come into the Hands office, according to Hands officials.