Record Heat in Northeast Stretches to Fourth Day

Record Heat in Northeast Stretches to Fourth Day
By MANNY FERNANDEZ and PATRICK McGEEHAN
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: July 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/nyregion/08heat.html?th&emc=th


The Northeast faced a fourth day of a record-breaking heat wave on Wednesday, after triple-digit temperatures tested power supplies throughout the region and tried the patience and resilience of anyone who dared to venture outside.

While temperatures moderated some from Tuesday’s peak - which saw a record set at 103 degrees for the day in New York City - utilities warned that the length and intensity of this heat wave was testing the limits of their systems.

The heat broke several records in the Northeast, as Boston, Providence and Philadelphia all saw triple-digit temperatures Tuesday that eclipsed previous highs. In Philadelphia, a 92-year-old woman was found dead in her home on the second floor, where all but one window was shut. The medical examiner ruled that extreme heat was a factor in her death.

Forecasters predicted that Wednesday would offer only limited relief, with temperatures in the low- to mid-90s. By about noon on Wednesday, the heat around the region that had been merely unpleasant earlier in the morning seemed to intensify, with both Central Park and Newark International Airport at 97 degrees. Elsewhere in the Northeast, excessive heat warnings were in effect for Philadelphia through 8 p.m. Thursday and the surrounding areas in New Jersey and Delaware.

Amtrak was warning customers of delays on its Northeast Corridor service on Wednesday because trains are operating at reduced speeds. Track temperatures reached 130 degrees, and, according to Cliff Cole, a spokesman for Amtrak, that temperature requires trains to drop their speeds to a maximum of 100 miles an hour.

The National Weather Service blamed a high-pressure system along the East Coast that drew hot, humid air from the south and will probably stay put until late this week.

Con Edison officials used automated calls Tuesday night to appeal to customers in New York City to turn off “non-essential” appliances as power consumption reached record levels. The utility had been forced to reduce voltage in neighborhoods throughout Brooklyn and Queens because of problems with electrical cables, and they had asked thousands of customers in those neighborhoods — including Brooklyn Heights, Red Hook, Cobble Hill and Fort Greene in Brooklyn — to turn off electrical appliances until the problems were resolved. By about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the utility said full power had been restored to the affected neighborhoods.

In New Jersey, about 6,500 customers with Public Service Electric & Gas were without power on Wednesday morning, including those in Fairview, Elizabeth and Jersey City, according to a spokeswoman.

In New York City, the heat’s effects were unsparing: Some city pools were filled to capacity within an hour or so of opening, sending seekers of respite to libraries, cooling centers and other public havens from the heat. Hospitals set out jars of ice water as their waiting rooms filled with wheezing elderly patients and exhausted firefighters. Fire Department officials said they responded on Tuesday to 76 heat-related calls, including for people suffering from heat exhaustion, but had only received 12 as of late Wednesday morning.

Some media outlets were reporting that a woman who died in Queens on Tuesday was the first heat-related death in New York City, but officials with the police and fire departments had not confirmed those reports. A spokeswoman for Charles S. Hirsch, the chief medical examiner, said that the woman’s autopsy would be conducted on Thursday. The medical examiner’s office had not certified any deaths in the city as being caused by hyperthermia, which occurs when the body produces or absorbs more heat than it can dissipate and is the opposite of hypothermia.

The city’s police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said that the Police Department was mindful that crime sometimes increased in the extreme heat of night, and was also prepared to send extra officers to places that had lost power. On Wednesday, Mr. Kelly stood outside the Police Athletic League’s Harlem Center to draw attention to a different sort of summertime crime: Illegally opened fire hydrants. Opening a fire hydrant without attaching a city-sanctioned spray cap can lead to fines of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to 30 days, or both. An illegally opened hydrant can release more than 1,000 gallons of water per minute, while a hydrant with a spray cap emits 20 to 25 gallons per minute.

“We understand that people want to try to cool off, but they need to try to do it in a way that’s safe,” said Cas Holloway, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, which shut off 1,400 illegally opened hydrants throughout the city on Tuesday.

But even as Con Edison officials were optimistic that the city would survive the day without widespread power failures, they acknowledged that the intensity and duration of the heat wave could have a cumulative effect on the cables and transformers. In short, they said, the worst may be yet to come.

“It’s Round 1 in a prizefight,” said John Miksad, Con Edison’s senior vice president of electric operations. “Round 1 looks O.K., but the bell hasn’t rung yet.”

It has been four years since the utility’s equipment in Long Island City failed in a cascade of blown feeder lines and left tens of thousands of Queens residents without power for more than a week. The power system’s ability to withstand a sustained surge in demand has not really been tested since that summer.

“We haven’t had a real New York heat wave in a while,” said Mr. Miksad, who admitted to having fretted through a “nervous weekend” knowing what was coming. Con Edison dispatched extra crews to Staten Island where a main feeder cable failed early in the day, and by late afternoon more than 4,000 customers were without power in the Fox Hills neighborhood.

The power failures came as city officials and utility executives dealt on Tuesday with what was the hottest day in New York since Aug. 9, 2001, when the temperature in Central Park also reached 103 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

But Mr. Miksad said that more people might have lost power if not for a set of demand-reduction programs that were used on Tuesday, including voluntary cutbacks by big corporate customers and the utility’s ability to control the thermostats in some residents’ homes. All told, those programs saved as much as 400 megawatts and kept total demand from surpassing the all-time high, he said.

Some office buildings, including Con Edison’s headquarters near Union Square, shut down banks of elevators, lowered the lights and turned up thermostats. Con Edison requested that all of its customers conserve electricity by turning off equipment not being used, keeping air-conditioners at 78 degrees and running washers, dryers and dishwashers late at night.

Robert Madden, 25, a waiter who lives in Astoria, said that his electronic equipment shut down in a specific order.

“First the PlayStation turns off, then the refrigerator, then the computer, the lights, then the pilot lights on the stove, then the fan,” he said.

He added that he had advised his wife, who is both pregnant and a student, to stay at school. “There is air-conditioning there,” he said. “You can’t have a pregnant wife at home baking.”

New Yorkers ducked into air-conditioned stores to cool down while they browsed. But merchants needed to be on guard: Local Law 38 was in effect. The new law makes it illegal for a store to keep its doors open while running the air-conditioning, a widespread method of luring customers inside on a hot day. Last year, the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs conducted 114 inspections: 89 stores were in compliance and 25 were issued warnings. The law required that first-time offenders receive written warnings, not violations. Stores can be fined $200 for a second offense.

In recent days, inspectors have fined several stores in Manhattan for second offenses, including the Filene’s Basement at 4 Union Square South and the Armani Exchange at 129 Fifth Avenue, said a spokeswoman for the consumer affairs agency.

The law affects any business with at least 4,000 square feet, or small stores that are part of a chain with five or more stores in the city.


Reporting was contributed by Ali Elkin, Mirela Iverac, Natasha Lennard, Liz Robbins, Nate Schweber and Karen Zraick.