Relief From Cold Wave Is on Horizon, Forecasters Say : Weather: Experts see a weekend ‘thaw’ over much of the East and Midwest. Temperatures should climb into the 20s and 30s, they predict.

The mercury took a final dip below zero Friday before a weekend “thaw” that is expected to bring temperatures in the 20s and 30s and some relief to residents of the East and Midwest who have been numbed by the ice and cold.

“You could say we’re suffering from a little cabin fever,” said Mayor Patrick Loughney of Scranton, Pa., who has four children, ages 4 to 16. “There’s only so much you can do. The videos are just going around and around.”

The cold wave has been blamed for at least 130 deaths since last weekend. Many people died in icy road crashes, some suffered heart attacks while shoveling snow and others froze to death, authorities said.

Icebreakers cruised the Hudson River on Friday, mail delivery was halted by frozen batteries in postal trucks, and water main breaks were a problem from Michigan to Georgia.

With the mercury at about 8 degrees, a pre-dawn New York City water main break sent water gushing into the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, making the link between Brooklyn and Manhattan impassable. Workers got the flow down to a trickle about seven hours later by turning off valves.

Residents of more than 60 flooded homes were forced into the streets. One street partially collapsed under the torrent, and some parked cars were swamped by water. As water settled on the streets, it began to freeze.

In Cincinnati, work crews were repairing the 150 water mains that leaked or burst. Mandatory water restrictions were lifted in Atlanta after repairs to three mains that burst earlier in the week.

National Weather Service officials said temperatures should shoot up by Monday--to 40 degrees in some spots.

“It’s going to be very gradual,” said meteorologist Bob Stalker in New York.

Forecasts called for temperatures in the Midwest and Northeast to reach the upper 20s today and the low 30s on Sunday.

The coldest spots in the Lower 48 were in the Northeast and Midwest early Friday. It was 16 below in Albany, N.Y., and Indianapolis. It was 9 below in Pittsburgh, Pa., and 6 below in Portland, Me. Cleveland, Detroit and Louisville, Ky., also had sub-zero temperatures.

Snow and ice have closed schools, highways and airports in the past week. Some schools reopened Friday, but many remained closed.

About 362,000 nonessential federal employees in Washington were told to stay home Thursday. Federal offices reopened Friday.

Forecasters blamed the cold weather on high pressure hanging over the western United States and Canada. Like a boulder in a stream, it has forced the eastbound jet stream from the Pacific to go around it by taking a detour up into Canada, picking up cold air before flowing down into the United States.

On the frozen Hudson River, Coast Guard icebreakers rescued ice-bound barges Friday and tried to keep a small ice-free “highway” for boats.

Steve Knee’s houseboat, the Bullwinkle, has been icebound all week at a New York City marina.

“Yesterday we set up a table on the ice and had coffee, and then we went roller-skating on the ice,” he said. “Ice-skating would have been too easy.”

Many others have had enough of the most numbing cold they have experienced in years.

“The last two days have been really testing my resolve,” said Michael Savosky, a toll-taker at the Rip Van Winkle Bridge near Albany, N.Y. He said his hands were so chapped that his knuckles were bleeding.