Heat Wave Persists in Northeast

Commuters baked on subway platforms that felt like furnaces Thursday while children cooled off in pools as the Northeast and parts of the Midwest staggered through the fifth day of an oppressive heat wave that has already killed at least 20 people.

In New York, the temperature reached a record 103 degrees for the date while in neighboring Newark, N.J., it topped 105 degrees, the National Weather Service said. The old record in both cities was 100, set in 1949.

In Boston, as temperatures approached a record 99, residents and tourists flocked to malls, museums, movie theaters or any place with air-conditioning.

At the New England Aquarium, crowds surged through the doors to a blast of cold air.

“Oh, thank you, God,” Mike Madison exclaimed. “I didn’t want to die out there.”

In Albany, N.Y., streets were almost deserted as people took shelter in air-conditioned homes and businesses or in neighborhood and city pools.

“It’s just too hot for them to even come out to buy food to eat,” said Paul Giordano, who sells produce at Philadelphia’s open-air Italian Market. Vendors said sales of fruit, vegetables and poultry were down by as much as 50%.

The mercury rose to 100 in many cities and towns from Maine to Virginia, taxing tempers and electricity supplies.

In Baltimore, where three deaths have been attributed to the heat, six people were treated for heat exhaustion Thursday at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

New York Gov. George Pataki ordered parking and admission fees waived at parks statewide.

In New York City, municipal pools stayed open until 8 p.m. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called on supervisors of city employees to use common sense in delegating responsibilities, saying that “strenuous work is not suggested at this time, unless it’s an absolute emergency.”

On a Times Square subway platform, Christopher Hercules, 21, wiped his brow with a towel and said, “It’s much hotter down here than it is outside. But I’m getting used to it.”

Electricity demand was so high that lights flickered in New York when the metropolitan area suffered scattered outages.

Officials at three major power grids covering New York, New England and the mid-Atlantic states said they expected heavy use of air conditioners to push electricity demand to record levels for the third straight day.

New York and New Jersey officials ordered all nonessential state offices closed at 2 p.m. EDT to help conserve energy.

Chicago and Detroit were also boiling, but unlike the Northeast they can expect some relief when thunderstorms move across the area this morning, meteorologists said.

Kentucky has counted three heat-related deaths in recent days--all construction workers. Wisconsin has reported 10 heat-related deaths.

Meteorologists said the extreme temperatures and humidity were expected to continue in the Northeast for one more day.

Thunderstorms are expected to help cool things down over the weekend, allowing authorities to end the succession of excessive heat warnings.