Temperatures sizzle past 100 degrees

Published: July 22, 2008

Sandra Leeds knew something was wrong when she became dizzy and nauseated and walked into a door as the temperature climbed toward 100 degrees on Monday.

The 69-year-old widow in northwest Oklahoma City finally called an ambulance and was rushed to the hospital with heat exhaustion.

"It was just hot, hot," Leeds said Tuesday as temperatures again sizzled into the triple-digits across the state. "I had just been feeling worse and worse."

The mercury topped 100 degrees in more than a dozen Oklahoma cities by 3 p.m. Tuesday, reaching 103 degrees in Lawton and 102 in Durant and Alva, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters predicted several more days of triple-digit heat across the state as high-pressure systems centered over the Rockies and Gulf Coast states "bridged together" over Oklahoma.

"That leaves us in a stagnant pattern that is typical for this time of year where we're seeing temperatures pretty close to 100 degrees on a consistent basis," meteorologist Patrick Burke said.

Leeds, who lives on a fixed income and whose home has wiring problems that prevent her from using a window air conditioning unit, is the type of person most vulnerable to the heat, said Heide Brandes, a spokeswoman for the Salvation Army in Oklahoma City.

The relief agency welcomes senior citizens at two centers open to the public in Warr Acres and in southeast Oklahoma City where the elderly can get a meal and a cool drink in the air conditioning.

"Seniors are particularly susceptible to heat-related illness," Brandes said. "In 2006, more than 20 seniors died as a result from the heat. That just doesn't need to happen in this day and age."

The agency also set up a cooling station Tuesday southwest of downtown Oklahoma City where many of the city's homeless people live.

"The heat is brutal here in Oklahoma, and some of these guys and women have no shade, no air conditioning, no access to fresh water," Brandes said. "That can be a very dangerous situation, especially for those who have their homes in the street."

The Emergency Medical Services Authority responded to a handful of calls Monday and Tuesday in Oklahoma City and Tulsa as temperatures climbed toward 100 degrees, but state officials say no deaths have been attributed to the heat so far this year.

Those working outdoors also are vulnerable to heat exhaustion, and health officials recommended taking frequent breaks and drinking plenty of fluids.

A bottle of water sat in the front seat of a golf cart that 53-year-old Doug Landon uses as the facilities manager of Lakeview Park Church of the Nazarene in northwest Oklahoma City.

Early Tuesday afternoon, the sun baked Landon as he cut weeds along a chain link fence surrounding the church's parking lot.

"I'm pretty much adapted to it," Landon said. "It's worse for people who are out in it all day long — I've been going in and out.

"But I've been drinking a lot of water and taking a lot of breaks."

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