This is an update of a diary I wrote yesterday. At that time in comments I predicted that we would see many more deaths before this current heatwave is over. Unfortunately that is just what has happened.
From the AP
Americans dipped into the water, went to the movies and rode the subway just to be in air conditioning Saturday for relief from unrelenting heat that has killed 30 people across half the country.
[...]
At least 30 deaths were blamed on the heat, including nine in Maryland and 10 in Chicago, mostly among the elderly. Three elderly people found dead in their houses in Ohio had heart disease, but died of high temperatures in homes lacking power because of recent outages, officials said. Heat was also cited as a factor in three deaths in Wisconsin, two in Tennessee and three in Pennsylvania.
This is what Global Warming looks like.
Thousands of mid-Atlantic residents remained without power more than a week after deadly summer storms and extreme heat struck the area, including 120,000 in West Virginia and some 8,000 in the suburbs around Baltimore and Washington, D.C. In the Washington area, Pepco asked customers to conserve power, saying the heat was stressing the system.
We are living in the
Age of Consequences. It is the consequence of over 30 years of republican/conservative policies. It has wrecked our economy, our health care system, our food supply and it is trying to wreck our public educational system. But I think the greatest damage the republicans/conservatives have done in the last 30 years started when Reagan removed the solar panels from the White House roof. The greatest damage they have inflicted has been to wreck our environment and deny the existence of climate change. If we are enable to right the burning ship of our planet, the republicans are the ones who should take the pitchforks first.
8:50 AM PT: 42 now confirmed dead in US heatwave
http://www.bbc.com/
Updating title as more news comes in