A Day of Prayer for Rain Urged as Drought Persists

Alabama’s governor on Saturday asked people to observe a day of prayer for rain. In the Milwaukee area, officials considered whether to forgo Fourth of July fireworks because of hazardously dry conditions. Shipping on parts of the Mississippi River was stalled again as widespread drought continued.

Temperatures reached record highs, but not in the same places that were simmering in the past week. Thanks to a cold front, temperatures across the northern plains were 15 to 25 degrees cooler than on Friday, and most of the record heat occurred in the Ohio Valley, where relief was expected today.

The lower Mississippi River was again blocked to shipping as barges ran aground near Greenville, Miss., Helena, Ark., and Osceola, Ark., Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Dean Jones said.

At Memphis, Tenn., a 30-mile-long traffic jam of towboats and barges on a newly dredged section of the Mississippi was clearing up Saturday. The river was closed there from Tuesday until a dredge finished clearing a channel on Friday.

Texas, Arkansas Showers

Showers and thunderstorms were scattered Saturday across eastern Texas and southern Arkansas into the central Gulf Coast.

“I ask that God-fearing people across our state put aside time next Wednesday to pray that God will send life-giving rain to our state and our nation,” Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt, a Baptist lay preacher, said in his weekly radio address.

High-temperature records started falling early. It wasn’t noon yet when the temperature in Milwaukee passed the previous record of 95 degrees, and it kept on rising, to 100. Flint, Mich., saw a record high of 94 degrees matched by 10:45 a.m. and then surpassed, to 101.

In Chicago, the mercury was at 100 by noon and later reached a record high of 103, to make this month the first June with three 100-plus days since records were begun there in 1873.

The heat wave has been blamed for five deaths. Three people have died in St. Louis, one in Thomas County, Ga., and one in East St. Louis, Ill.

Chicago public health officials advised that people without air conditioning could take refuge in public libraries and seniors’ centers. “We are monitoring the situation and will open more shelters if needed,” said Dr. David Marder of the city health department.

Fireworks in Doubt

Several Wisconsin communities already have canceled Independence Day fireworks exhibitions because of the risk of fire, and Milwaukee County officials said they would decide by Monday whether to call off aerial displays. One show will go on, however, because the rockets will be shot over Lake Michigan.

A forest fire aggravated by the heat and lack of rain was declared to be 65% contained Saturday. A crew of more than 650 firefighters fought the blaze over 27,000 acres of grass and forest in southeastern Montana and a small area in western South Dakota. At one point, the flames overtook 18 firefighters, but only one had to be hospitalized.

Some shippers were switching to the relatively new Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway from Mobile, Ala., to the Tennessee River, which connects to the Ohio River. Barge traffic on the waterway has increased 50% in the last few days because of the low level of the Mississippi, the Army Corps of Engineers said.

Texas Flood Warnings

More than 5.75 inches of rain fell overnight at Leakey, Tex., and a flash-flood warning was issued in Texas for southern Real and northern Uvalde counties.

Some parts of Louisiana got more than an inch of rain. “We need an inch of rain every week for the next three or four weeks, just to put the moisture back into the subsoil where it should be,” said cotton farmer Jim Harper of Cheneyville.

Birmingham, Ala., got its first measurable rain in 30 days and nearby Childersburg was hit by torrential rains that flattened corn crops, covered streets and lawns and overflowed from ditches.