Heat Wave Unabated in Southern Plains

Hot summertime temperatures baked the southern plains on Saturday while heavy rain prompted flood warnings in Iowa and Nebraska, weather officials said.

A band of rain and thunderstorms extended from the central plains to the Great Lakes.

The temperature in Tampa, Fla., climbed to 96 degrees, a record high for the date, breaking a 69-year-old mark by one degree.

83 Deaths Cited

At least 83 deaths over the last two weeks have been attributed to the massive heat wave.

The most problems Saturday were reported in Texas, where hospital emergency rooms treated dozens of people for heat exhaustion, authorities said. Only a few people were admitted as in-patients, officials said.

Employees at landscaping firms did whatever they could to escape the heat. Debbi Wilson, a secretary at AAA Stone & Sand landscapers in Dallas, said that when the company’s 12 outdoor employees come in from the heat they “run in front of the air conditioner, flap their wings and do whatever they can do to cool off.

“It’s just too hot out there,” Wilson said.

The National Weather Service said temperatures would continue near 100 throughout the weekend in North Texas, with the heat index at 105 to 110 degrees due to the humidity.

100 Degrees Forecast

The weather service also said temperatures would reach the 100-degree mark in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.

Trucks loaded with about 100 tons of donated hay left Alabama on Saturday for parched farms in Wisconsin, from which farmers shipped tons of the fodder to the Southeast during last year’s drought.

Last year’s hay lift rescued many Alabama farmers “from the brink of ruin” and they were happy to pay back the generosity this year, Gov. Guy Hunt said Saturday.

Seven trucks loaded with donated hay are scheduled to arrive in Luck, Wis., on Monday.

Will Send Cotton Seeds

Hay shipments are scheduled to continue through the fall, and loads of cotton seed could begin heading north as early as October, a Hunt aide said.

Summer rains in the Midwest prompted flash flood watches in Iowa and Nebraska, and a cold front that triggered storms in Nevada and Colorado lingered over the central Rockies.

Heavy rains in west-central Iowa prompted the weather service to warn motorists of rivers swelling toward flood stage.