At the risk of being masters of the obvious, it's record heat blistering the Chicago area now and it is cooking up a few concerns. The Chicago Motor Club says that emergency calls are up 100%. Engines are cocking out due to the heat. Air conditioners tend to drag in the engine battery. The heat can have a negative effect on crops as well, but a trade expert on crop says the heat isn't supposed to last too long, so it shouldn't affect crops or crop prices. This bridge on West Roosevelt couldn't take the heat. There was a thermal expansion problem. That means the metal began to swell and that caused the bridge to get stuck. Traffic was backed up until the bridge could be fixed. Cooling off under a city hydrant is a no no, but pretty popular nonetheless. City officials say that lowers water pressure and could be dangerous if there is a fire. Mayor Daly also issued a warning anyone interfering with city workers turning off hydrants will be arrested. Also, doctors warned the elderly, sick, and very young should stay out of the sun to prevent a case of heat stroke. Well, we're all learning some lessons today about how to survive in the midst of a heat wave like this. And one place where the lessons hit home today was in summer school. Channel 2's Christine Doyle has more on Dunar High, where kids are still learning in spite of today's high temps. It's hot. Even the assistant principal is sweating at Dunar High, hosting the new superintendent and hundreds of colleagues could make any administrator dizzy. But on a day when the temperature outside reached 102 degrees, the temperature inside felt infinitely higher. All of us survived as young people without air conditioning. And so we at Dunar are custom now in 95 not having air conditioning. We never have. No air conditioning meant the lesson for today was how to learn while trying to survive record-breaking heat. For some, that meant staying close to the sink where a washcloth could be soaked for instant relief. Granted, most summer school students don't volunteer for a summer behind school doors, but these students say today's heat made staying focused even harder. I learned a lot, but you know, as that hot and all that stress, you can't really, you know, come pay attention to what you doing cuz, you know, they ain't got no air conditioning. Ain't no wind blowing even though they got the windows up for about 2 or 3 days. We shouldn't be in school till the temperature comes down. At the end of the day, with no problems reported, school officials gave themselves high grades for coping in some of the most difficult weather this year. We have 700 students in summer school. They were here. We have 25 teachers. They were here. We had no disruptions and we had the citywide meeting. So, it's really been quite a nice day even though it's been very, very hot. In Chicago, Christine Doyle, Channel 2 News. School officials say the majority of public schools in Chicago are without air conditioning. If you need some relief from the heat, the city is ready to help you. Call the heat hotline. The number is 744-5829 and you can find the nearest cooling center to you. Operators will answer the phone 24 hours a day. Again, that number 7445829. We'll have more on the heat a little bit later in our newscast. Well, when I was in seventh grade science, I think they told me ice and heat, it would probably melt. But we wanted to try it anyway to find out what would happen if we put a big chunk of ice out on our weather deck today. That started out at 300 lb. We put it up there right before we went on the air at 4:00 this afternoon. It's now 5:03 and it's still a big chunk of ice. I don't even see any water under there. You got to look closely. Must be nuclear ice or something. Goes down through the It's probably leaking on the boss in the boss's office below. That's all I can think. Anyway, Paul Douglas is going to join us in a few minutes with his forecast. [Music] Lester is so upset because the block of ice on the roof doesn't appear to be melting. 300 lb of ice. 10 and some odd degrees. He thinks it's getting bigger. Paul, I think it's plastic. I'm not sure what's going on. We've been done in Oh, boy. Hey, uh I'm a perfect example. Today is the kind of day you throw any attempt at fashion out the window and dress to survive. And you don't need lakefront property. You don't need a pool membership pass. Come up with some creative ways to uh to keep your cool. I think I spent all of what 20 bucks on this kitty pool. But you know what? It's doing the trick. Feels great until I get up out of here. In fact, I'm going to try to get up here and update you just to give you some [Applause] We're having too much fun. Check out. Look at this. It is actually cooked, Lester. This is a a fully cooked egg. Now, granted, the egg white doesn't look too good, but this has been out here for about an hour. You're going to get electrocuted up there. I got it. That's an electric fan, right? Electric pan. I didn't think about that. Maybe if I put this on the block of ice, something will happen. It'll probably fry on that ice. This thing. This is out of control. Let's check a weather spy photo for you. We have one today. Speaking of the dog days. Yep, they're here. Named after the dog star Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, now visible in the late night sky. Thanks to Margaret Stone of Glenn Ellen, today's winning weather spy. All right, here are the numbers. Good grief. 103 O'Hare, 106 Midway, 103 Lakefront, 41% humidity, a southwest wind. It feels like 119. Barometer falling. Our high today, 103 at least so far. 81 was the low. Sunset now 827. Hey, look at the bright side. Nothing severe showing up on Storm Watch. All the troubled weather heading off to our north and east towards Detroit. Check out Earthwatch. And you can see that giant mezo convective complex, that big MCC. It's showing up right now on the satellite. And you can see it right here. There's a pretty good chance that uh we could see some showers and thunderstorms here perhaps by Saturday or Sunday. All right. It's so hot. There we go. All right. Ah, look at this. Nothing but bright searing anti-persperent sunshine all across the Midwest. This air mass is moving eastward and we will see some slight ever so slight relief beginning tomorrow if you call a 100 relief. 91 92 on Saturday. I think we'll be back in the upper 80s by Sunday. There are those strong thunderstorms that slid off to our north today. Again, the first real chance of rain here in Chicagoland Friday night, tomorrow night. Let's check out what's happening right now close to home in terms of things you should be remembering. Symptoms you should be looking for. Heat cramps, heat exhaustion, clammy skin, nausea, headaches, heat stroke of course is more dangerous. Dry skin. Get that person to a cool room and call 911 immediately. Temperatures near 100 right now and they will be once again tomorrow. Indications are that by Saturday we should finally cool off slightly into the low 90s, but the heat wave is going to be with us at least 36 more hours. The first hundred that we've seen since 1991. Tomorrow, just as hot, right around 100 degrees. Quick peak at the 5day. 89 Sunday, mid80s Monday and Tuesday. Here's your forecast. It looks hot, plenty hot tonight. A low of 82°. Then for tomorrow, 83 when you wake up, like a sauna. I should be serving towels with this forecast. By lunchtime, once again, 95 to 100°. That's all of it. This is how I drive the Kennedy. Oh boy. That's all of it from the deck. Some people had far too much time on their hands is what I want to say. Making the best of a bad situation. We're enjoying it. Thanks, Paul. From WBBM TV. This is Chicago's News 2 News at 4:30. This face kind of says it all. Hot, sticky, and desperate to keep cool. Good afternoon. I'm Joan Love It in tonight for Linda and I'm Lester Hol. We're all asking who opened the oven door. That's a question a lot of Chicagoans asking today as they step outside into an urban broiler. It's hot enough out there to make a Chicago February start to look good. Turning on hydrants during this scorcher is the most selfish form of relief. It feels good to you, but it can rob your neighbors of water. Water levels are low. City crews out there rushing to get them shut down. And as if you don't already know it's brutally hot, there's a thermometer sign flashing the numbers in your face. 95 in this case and higher in a lot of places. Add the heat index, it feels a whole lot hotter. It's so hot that concrete roads are actually buckling. It happened in Palaton and here on the southbound Ryan. Luckily, the problem happened in the lane already closed for repairs. The heat has a tight grip on us, but there are a lot of folks working to make sure it doesn't strangle us. Heat is the only thing on most people's minds and the only thing right now on the city's agenda. and it is a very serious problem. The Cook County Medical Examiner confirms that four people have died from heat related problems. All of them were aged 69 or older. The mayor is taking action to make sure that the death toll doesn't rise. For that story, we have team coverage this evening. Our Lisa Kim has the latest on the city's response to this heat wave. And Sylvia Gomez has the latest on water wos that are forcing a ban in some areas. First though, we begin with you, Lisa. Joan, the heat is certainly taking its toll on city services. Some department heads even say they're so stretched thin they can't stand it. Now, take for instance, on a normal day, Chicago uses about 1 billion gallons of water. By today's end today, it's expected to double electricity. Combed says we're operating at record levels. They're even buying electricity from other Midwest companies to power all those air conditioners that are running. Now, city officials are calling this a heat crisis of sorts, but a crisis we can deal with just as long as residents cooperate. People are illegally opening fire hydrants as quickly as city water crews are shutting them down. But open hydrants are leaving some neighborhoods with little water pressure or no water at all. That is prompting a plea from Mayor Daly. I am again urging citizens to cooperate and avoid the temptation to tamper with the hydrants. It is illegal and it's a danger to your community as well as your families. I like to emphasize that the intimidation and harassment of water or sewer or fire department crews would not be tolerated. Now there are about 100 crews on the streets shutting the open hydrants down. Crews needing police protection because now they've become targets of assault. The heat wave is also causing problems with electricity. Transformers are down because of high heat and humidity. Thousands of customers in Chicago and the suburbs are without power. Mayor Daly enlisted the help of KMED to get residents to cooperate during this heat crisis. We'd encourage some of our residential customers, as many did in the city of Chicago yesterday, to change the thermostats on their air conditioners to 78 degrees rather than 72 degrees. that will save them a considerable amount of money and save strain on the system. City school officials are responding as well. About 300 schools are in summer session, some with air conditioning, others without. One of the things that we really wanted to do was to leave it up to the local principles to make a determination whether or not the school should be closed. And then for those schools that were providing bus services and things like that to provide them with liquids to provide them with support uh you know so as to uh help them cope with the excessive heating conditions. Cooperation is what the mayor is calling for during this heat crisis and common sense. It's hot. It's hot out there. Let's we all walk out there. It's very very very hot. Do you think that's a difficult concept for some people? Yes, it is hot. It's like getting heavy snow. It's like getting real cold weather. Yes, we go to extremes in Chicago and that's why people love Chicago. We go to extremes. Well, it is extremely hot here in Chicago. I don't know if people love it so much. Now, if you're way too hot, there are cooling centers around town where you can cool off. There's air conditioning. There's even medical help. And we'll get more into that on channel 2 news at 6 o'clock. Joan Lester. All right. And the heat is causing a water shortage in suburban hillside right now. Our team coverage continues with Sylvia Gomez and that part of the story. Silia Lester, this is a precious commodity today, water. The hose is working again here in Hillside. Hillside and several other communities last evening didn't have such luck. They simply ran out of water. Illinois's Hillid's rather water tower was completely dry last night, as was the neighboring reservoir that feeds it. So residents of Hillside slowly saw their water pressure dwindle until it finally died last night around 9:00. No water flowed again until early this morning. Residents are still being asked to conserve though because the tanks could run dry again. Hillside buys its water from Melrose Park which buys it from Chicago. And so when water pressure dwindled in Chicago yesterday, it was felt all the way to Hillside. We buy the water from someone else. Our residents buy it from us. We buy it from the commission who buys it from Melis Park who buys it from the city. So if the person that we buy it from has no water to give us, we have no water to give to our our residents and we really have no place to go. It has been a pretty bad situation. Although everything is back to normal today so far, although residents are being told a water ban is still in effect. They're told no watering of your lawns, no washing of your cars. We need to conserve the water that's there as long as possible unless there one other final warning. People are told to boil their water that comes from the city system today just to make sure no bacteria built up. Boil your water at least for the next 24 hours. After that, everything should be all right. Sylvia, is this the honor system or they actually be out patrolling looking for people watering their lawns tonight? At this point, Leser, it is the honor system. So far, people have been the water ban here anyway has been in effect for several weeks. And I tell you, I'm looking around and there several brown lawns here. So, it looks like people have been adhering to it. All right, that's good news, Sylvia. Day after day of extreme heat can take a toll on Chicago area highways. Here's a case in point. 47th in the Dan Ryan. That's where motorists had to cope with a buckle in the pavement. It was big enough to bring out repair crews, try and cut the bump back down to size. Even though we found this heat bump, Mayor Daly says there have been no reports of city streets buckling in the heat. Well, sorry to say that we cannot say the same thing about power outages around the Chicago area. It was late Thursday when the hard cold fax turned out to be anything but in the village of Kerry. At this gas station, there was no power for lights or cash register computers or more importantly for the motors that run the pumps. So, what do you do? Well, you just lock it up and you try again another day. Kameed was working on just this kind of problem all night and all morning long. Most power is back on in Kerry now, but scattered outages continue in Crystal Lake and in Wakanda. We are being patient, but it is time to get the word from Paul Douglas on when all of this is finally going to end. Paul, go ahead and growl. Everybody else in Chicagoland is yell. Oh my. The end is near uh to the heat wave. That is we will be in the upper 80s by Sunday and Monday with a noticeable drop in humidity. Meteorologists prone to exaggeration, but it it really does feel like a blast furnace, like a free sun out there. Temperatures running a couple of degrees cooler than yesterday. It's only 103 to 106. Yeah, no 110s or 111s showing up. Good grief. You factor in the humidity and it feels like 115 to 125. Still well into the danger zone. Take it very easy tonight. Our low 82, 97 tomorrow, but by Sunday, relief finally kicks in. And again, usually a forecast of rain on the weekend. People aren't very happy about that. I think this weekend will be a big exception. We can see a few hours of cooling rain by Sunday morning. Relief right around the corner. Lester and John. All right, Paul. We heard the mayor a few moments ago talk about this is a city of extremes. So, in the winter time, you get the warming centers and right now they've got the cooling centers open. The city has opened five cooling centers to help people cool down. All are run by the city department of human services. On the north side, it's 4740 North Sheridan Road. On the northwest side, the cooling center is at 3636 West Armmitage. And on the west side, it's at 10 South Kenzie Avenue. For southsiders, there's a cooling center at 6245 South Hallstead, another at 829 West 119th Street. A third center at 43rd in Cottage Grove remains closed. Their air conditioner broke down. If you're suffering from heat, there is a place you can go. Again, they've set these up across the area. The phone number uh for the cooling center 744582974-5829. Operators will take your calls 24 hours a day. From WBBM TV, this is Chicago's News 2 News at 10. The heat wave has turned deadly tonight for two children in Chicago. Hello, I'm Lester Halt. And I'm Larry My. It is a tragic reminder how severe this heat wave is and how serious we should take it. The heat has claimed six lives in the Chicago area. The latest victims, two three-year-old boys, who died of heat exhaustion after they were left inside a locked van outside a Southside daycare center. The daycare center is at 10327 South Forest Avenue. Police tonight say the boys were left inside the sizzling hot van for an hour and a half. The two boys fell asleep in the van on the way back from a field trip. Police say a 43-year-old woman working at the daycare center took eight other children in the van back inside the center but forgot the two boys. They died of heat exhaustion. The identities of the boys have not been released. There's no word on whether the daycare center will be charged. We have a news crew on the way and we'll bring you a live report in just a few minutes. Another scorching night in the Chicago area. Another night for the record books and it's not a night to be without power. But at one point about 40,000 KMED customers were no fans, no air conditioners, no power for refrigerators in a huge area bounded by Lake Michigan on the east, Cosner on the west, Lawrence on the north, and Palmer on the south. KMED says the power went off because of a fire at a substation at California and Edison. That's where our Lauren Green is now with the latest. Lauren? Well, Lester, about 25,000 customers are still without power. Now, behind me, you might catch a glimpse of some uh Comed workers who are now still working to repair the circuit breakers, which caught fire earlier this evening. And of course, as you said, that is what caused the power outage. As if the heat wasn't bad enough, people who live in this 56story highrise came home to no power. We have animals up there with the windows closed. We had the air going. Um, we just went grocery shopping. All our groceries are going to waste in the in the trunk of the car. We don't have any water, no air, no lights, can't eat any food, can't take a shower. Just got out the pool. I'm itching from the chlorine. It's just really bad. I have my animals upstairs and I want to get upstairs to take care of them. Safety was the main concern. We have quite a few elderly people and uh we're we've got people checking make sure that they're all right. It's only it's still cool in the apartments because, you know, it's only been 2 hours and the sun is gone now. So, we should be in pretty good shape. Small groups of flashlights were let upstairs to apartments so people could check on friends or pets left alone. As the sun set, candle light was the only form of illumination. The cause of this power outage and several others scattered through the north side was a fire at KMed's transmission substation at Addison in California. The fire was small, but for safety, firefighters had to turn off several grids. The small fire would not have would not have affected that large of an area. Again, for safety sake, they decided, let's let's turn everything off. Now, the power is coming on a little by little, but they're trying to take it slow just to be safe. And they said the latest and in the morning, everything should be fully restored. Lester. All right, Lauren. You think that being on the water in this night would have been a perfect way to beat the heat earlier. Wrong. At least that's the way it turned out for 70 kids on a sightseeing boat on the lake near Shed Aquarium today. 14 youngsters started complaining of dizziness, headaches, and nausea. all classic symptoms of heat exhaustion. At the time, it was about 100°. The boat pulled in. Paramedics examined the kids. 14 were sent to hospitals to recover. The rest got a welcome and cooling treat from the Chicago Fire Department. All right, how about some good news? There may be some relief on the way for the weekend. Steve Baskerville joins us from the weather center with the latest. Steve, Larry, and Lester, what we need around here is some rain to fall to help break this heat. And it looks like some thunderstorms are on the way. It may not get here tonight, but uh there are some signs that some of these storms are creeping closer to Chicago lined up now across western parts of Iowa all the way through Wisconsin and portions of Michigan and we could see some rain in some areas around dawn tomorrow morning. Now, three things is what this means will happen in terms of our weather coming up. Might drop the temperatures somewhat tomorrow afternoon into the 90s and that might feel a little bit better around here. Storms possible not only tomorrow morning but Saturday afternoon and Sunday as well. When all of that is over to begin next week, temperatures should be in the 80s, 80s rather, and a lot more comfortable around here. So, one more day of extreme heat. We still have a heat advisory in effect through the night tonight and for tomorrow. But there is a nice hopeful sign with the weather on the way. I will detail everything a little bit later on when I see you then. Okay, Steve. See you then. The heat is putting a strain and drain on the water supply. Some suburbs have imposed a strict water ban. In Hillside, the water supply is low. There's a ban on watering lawns, washing cars, and filling pools. And there's a boil order for drinking water. In Melrose Park, the ban is so strict, if you're caught watering your lawn, you'll pay a $100 fine. Now, grab a pencil and make a note. Cool air and cool water are free of charge once again tonight at the city's five cooling centers. They're located throughout the city on the north, northwest, and west sides. They are in North Shan Road, West Armmitage, and South Kenzie. There are also two centers on the south side. One is on H Hallstead, the other on 119th Street. The center at 43rd and Cottage Grove is closed because its air conditioning unit just gave out. There is some small consolation in all this. We are not the only hot spot. Much of the nation is sweltering right along with us, and it is equally dangerous. Places like St. Louis, for example, where paramedic help was too late for one man. Broiling temperatures now account for 20 deaths in the last 7 days. And the inferno is heading east. In Washington, DC, the Washington Monument was shut down by the park service. The reason, temperatures inside had soared. Tourists had to do with a cold drink in its shade. The heat was so crushing in Humbled, Iowa, it claimed the lives of nearly a quarter of a million chickens in just one poultry plant. That's $300,000 worth of chickens. The plant was not insured. In Sous City, Iowa, employees at a dry cleaning plant steamed the pants and themselves as temperatures continue to soar, said one. The objective today is not to drip any of your sweat on the clothes. We are in the midst of a weather related disaster, something Chicago's never seen before. Good evening, I'm Lauren Green. And I'm Jay Lavine. Topping Chicago's news at 10, a killer heatwave. It's already claimed at least 54 lives in Cook County alone. That's a record. Emergency rooms are jammed with people, many of them elderly, suffering from heat exhaustion. Power outages hit tens of thousands of homes as overheated equipment struggles to meet record demand. And those turning on fire hydrants to cool off are threatened with big fines. Our coverage begins now with Susan Anderson on medical examiners overwhelmed with victims. Police vans were passing each other on the way to and from the morg. At several times during the day, there was a long line of vans carrying the dead backed up at the morg. The medical examiner's office was so overwhelmed with bodies today, it asked the state for the refrigerated truck you see here in which to store all the extra bodies. All the trays and the and uh racks and stuff are filled up. So, you can just about say we running over. On an average night, the morg takes in 17 bodies. Last night, it received 87 bodies, a five-fold increase. It's a true emergency. We're handling it as a true emergency. And uh the uh the unfortunate thing uh at this time we have 50 bodies for tomorrow to examine already. Most of those who have died are elderly and many had underlying medical conditions. But even so, the number of deaths are staggering. The medical examiner had to call in extra doctors and staff to perform the autopsies. We're really facing a heat related disaster here. I've never seen anything like this in the history of the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. Now, the effects of the heat are cumulative, which is why today was the deadliest day of the heat wave. Susan Anderson, Channel 2 News. Thank you, Susan. Well, the dangerous heat is taking its toll on hospitals across the Chicago area. Crippling temperatures have caused a dramatic increase in the number of patients needing treatment. Our team coverage continues now with Christine Doyle who is live at Jackson Park Hospital with more on how emergency rooms there are coping. Christine, that's right, Lauren. Here at Jackson Park Hospital, inside the emergency room, the staff is working overtime. In the last 24 to 48 hours, they've seen more than 40 victims of heat exhaustion. And as we said, they're working around the clock to save lives. One after another, the victims of heat exhaustion have been wheeled into Jackson Park Hospital. This 60-year-old woman has suffered a heart attack. When they arrived that she was unresponsive, unconscious, uh, very hot, skin, very hot to touch. Paramedics say they pulled the woman from a house that was as hot as an oven. One paramedic told me that 60% of their calls today were dead on arrival. Very busy. I mean, a lot of uh heat emergency today. Just about everything was just like heat related. Um, uh, a lot of DOAs and cardiac arrest. I mean, it's not just the old, it's the young as well. Doctors say senior citizens and children are especially vulnerable in this kind of heat that they aren't as quick to realize when they're being overwhelmed. Everything in your body gets thrown off. All your autoregulatory systems, uh, your enzyatic systems, everything in your body gets thrown off and literally your body just starts cooking. Dr. Ivy Sander has slept 5 hours in the last 3 days. She's one of the dozens of staff members who've been working overtime trying to save the victims of this week's deadly heat wave. We had a little old lady, well not actually she wasn't a little old lady, she was in her 60s and she was underneath a fan that instead of blowing out cool air was blowing out hot air. She came in with a temperature of 106. Dozens of other people were brought into Jackson Park over the last few hours. Most of them regained consciousness, but five people lost their lives. Now, in the meantime, in the last hour or so, the temperature has dropped somewhat and there was a rain, which to us at least, it felt like things did cool down a little bit. Doctors inside this hospital warned me and viewers to be careful that there's such a thing as residual heat exhaustion and that it will take a couple of days, Lauren, until our bodies and our homes cool down as well. All right, thank you, Christine. Well, the cause of death has now been determined for the two toddlers who died in a daycare center van yesterday. The chief medical examiner confirms the boy's deaths were heat related. Police say the boys were left inside a sweltering van after falling asleep coming home from an outing at the Ford City Mall. They were in the care of a daycare operator at 10327 South Forest Avenue. There is no word tonight whether the daycare operator will be charged in the boy's deaths. Tonight, heat is a major problem for thousands still without electricity after a transformer fire. Most of Wrigleyville was plunged into darkness last night. 42,000 Comemed customers lost power and more important air conditioners. 5,500 people are still out tonight. Comemed hopes to get everyone back online by 3 tomorrow morning. What started as child's play has become an expensive and dangerous business. The Chicago Police Department is issuing tickets to people opening fire hydrants to keep cool. Police say it's also leading to violence. One city worker reports being fired on today and police are accompanying water department workers trying to turn them off. Those caught opening hydrants are now being slapped with $500 fines. Opening the hydrants lowers water pressure and makes firefighting even more dangerous. Well, Chicago is not the only area being scorched by the blistering heat. Sweltering temperatures are gripping much of the Midwest and the East Coast. In Toledo, Ohio, a near record-breaking day where the mercury inched up past the 100 degree mark. And with the intense heat came severe thunderstorms that knocked out power to 30,000 customers. Like here in Chicago, one of the most popular places to beat the heat was in the cool spray of an open fire hydrant. While the nation's capital isn't fairing much better, the Washington Monument was closed for the third consecutive day. Another casualty of the relentless heat. Tourists continue to make the rounds, cooling themselves by dipping into nearby fountains. Also in Washington, President Clinton proved he can take the heat. Clinton braved temperatures in the 100s to take his daily jog. Looking a little more wilted than usual, the president threw in a few stretches for good measure. Roads here in Chicago have been looking a little wilted as well. The heat causing pavement to buckle all week long. Tonight, there's a new problem on I-57 going northbound. The traffic is really backed up just past the Sibi Boulevard exit. The far right lane buckled. Construction crews had already closed down two lanes for construction, delaying traffic. And now, because of the road buckling, all lanes are blocked. Cars are being forced to drive on the right shoulder to get through. If you're out tonight, you've noticed a bit of a change. Finally, a break in our 100 degree heat. Absolutely. It's come in the form of rain. And Harry Velman continues our coverage now live in the weather center. What a relief. You're right, Lauren. And we're going to be saying that for several days. The big break in the 1995 heat wave will continue into tomorrow with heavy storms and much cooler temperatures. We see tonight that there are some expected heavy storms coming in with this line across southern Wisconsin. Another line that went through earlier caused a small tornado in Dire Indiana. Baseballsiz high hail up at Milwaukee and heavy rains that have caused flooding in parts of Michigan and Debuke, Iowa. The whole thing means a real break that's going to be welcome. Things will finally calm down by Monday. We'll have the whole story a little bit later. All right. No, thank you, Harry. Well, as Christine did say before, even if things do cool down a bit, the heat can have a residual effect and we'll continue to follow what mother nature deals us next and its effects on all of us. Good afternoon. Topping Chicago's news at 5:30, the heat wave has broken, but as with hurricanes or floods, only now after it's over, are we learning the true extent of the disaster. The county medical examiner says the death toll now over a hundred will climb and climb rapidly. And Mayor Daly is asking people to check on their elderly neighbors. Channel 2's Christine Doyle is live now with details. Christine. Well, Jay, here at the Cook County Mortuary, they're used to dealing with about 17 bodies a day. That number has increased fivefold over the last few days. In just the last few minutes, we've learned that 116 people have died throughout this heat wave this weekend. And while the thermometer is dropping, the number of victims coming in here isn't letting up. One by one, the bodies are carried into special refrigerated trucks. Since Friday, 94 people have died from heat exhaustion in the city of Chicago. It's a heatwave crisis. Now, the mayor is calling on neighbors to do their part. And while the city has taken a number of extraordinary steps to alert people to the dangers, clearly we need people to help out. We need neighbors going next door, homeowners going to another homeowner, apartment dwellers going to another apartment dwellers where they know there are senior citizens living within their complex. The medical examiner says the number of heat related deaths will climb past 100 by the end of the day, that there are 50 people already on the schedule to be autopsied tomorrow, and that there are more than 250 bodies in surrounding funeral homes. There's no way you can't describe it. You know, you just you got to just take Well, you know, as they come in, we just got to do what we got to do. And that's it. There's nothing, you know, you can't describe it. You can't do anything about it. So, we just do it. Volunteers from across the county are pitching in, and students from a local mortuary school are helping out as well. The wave continues, though, and workers here say it doesn't appear to be letting up anytime soon. We're probably going to be well over 200, and we could possibly, it looks like at the present time, based on the information we have, we could go up to 300. That's right. The Cook County Coroner is also telling us that they could get additional bodies all week long and that may then they may not know for another week exactly how grave this disaster has been. Laura and that's because they believe that at least some more elderly victims may be living in homes by themselves and people may be unaware that they are actually in there. All right, thank you Christine. Well, thousands of North Side residents feel powerless today and with good reason. They've not had any electricity in two days. Businesses and people living around Wrigleyfield have not had power since Friday night. And as John Duncinson reports, their patience has melted. For Sarah Walsh, the last day and a half have been a melting, dripping disaster, just oozing out of her freezer. Her cat has been cranky. The fan has been deathly still. We have a really bad bug problem now because all the food in the kitchen rotted. We can't clean because you can't vacuum. I mean, you can't do anything. The house is in shambles. By midday, the traffic lights at Sheffield and Clark still didn't register. Cars had to decide just when to go or not go as 6,000 people around Wrigleyville remained powerless. Richard Hattorii with a sign in his restaurant figures he's lost thousands of dollars. So, you have your food in the restaurant, right? What's going to happen to it? We have to throw away now. You go from window to window and see fans decommissioned. And KMED hasn't been able to reassure many as to when the problem will be fixed. Yesterday they said noon, then they said midnight, and then they said midm morning, and now we're not supposed to get it until 9:00 tonight. And that's hopefully. I can't figure out why Wrigley Field has power and we don't. This is what he's talking about. Both last night and this afternoon, Wrigley Field has been an oasis of electricity surrounded by a desert of increasingly angry voices. Tom Ed says Wrigleyfield is on a separate power grid, but it still doesn't sit well with Chris Clark, whose frozen pizza is soggy and wet. We just want some straight answers. I mean, we don't exactly have any other electric company to pick from, so you know, we kind of expect the service that we pay for. John Duncinson, Channel 2 News. Well, KMED says they're working to restore electricity by 9:00 tonight. The final tally on the toll taken by the 3-day scorcher still isn't complete at this point, but so far 94 deaths have been determined heat related. Kameed believes an all-time record for residential power demand was set, although official numbers won't be released until tomorrow. Many customers lost power as we just saw at the height of the outages. 42,000 people were without electricity. And Thursday was the hottest day in Chicago history. It was 106 at Midway Airport. Harry says the worst is behind us and he'll have his forecast just a bit later
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