* Power outages leave residents without air conditioning
* Forecasters cut corn crop estimates due to weather
By Ian Simpson
WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) – About 1.3 million homes and
businesses in the eastern United States remained without power
amid a heat wave on Tuesday, and storm damage and high
temperatures forced many Fourth of July celebrations to be
canceled.
Violent weekend storms and days of record heat have killed
at least 23 people in the United States since Friday. Some died
when trees fell on their homes and cars, and heat stroke killed
others.
Utilities warned that some people could be without power –
and unable to run their air conditioners – for the rest of the
week. About 1.3 million homes and businesses from Illinois to
Virginia remained without electricity.
Local officials in the hard-hit Washington area vented the
frustration of hundreds of thousands of people who endured a
fifth day with the lights off and the mercury nearing 100
Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius).
“People are so angry. They are berserk,” Roger Berliner,
vice president of the Montgomery County Council in suburban
Washington, told WTOP radio.
In the District of Columbia, some 13,000 customers of local
power company Pepco are still without power. The city is
distributing food to people who cannot cook at home.
“Frankly, the people are just fed up with it. I don’t have
any power in my own home,” Mayor Vincent Gray told CNN.
Thomas Graham, Pepco regional president, defended the
utility’s performance, saying crews were working around the
clock and three of four customers without power had had it
restored.
Utilities have called in crews and equipment from other
companies as far away as Canada and Texas as they grapple with
outages in 10 states and the District of Columbia.
Many Fourth of July celebrations were canceled as local
governments confronted damage from the hurricane-force winds and
high heat and drought conditions that made firework shows
risky.
Threats of wildfires and tight local budgets have forced
more than 100 communities nationwide to cancel fireworks
celebrations. Towns in Tennessee, Ohio and
Washington’s Maryland suburbs were among the latest to call off
the Independence Day festivities.
But one of the biggest U.S. fireworks parties, held on
Washington’s National Mall, will go ahead on Wednesday as
planned, a National Park Service spokeswoman said.
In another sign of damage from the soaring temperatures,
forecasters polled by Reuters have cut their outlook for the
U.S. corn crop by 2.5 percent as high heat and lack of rain
shriveled what would have been a record harvest.
INSURERS
The largest U.S. home and auto insurer, State Farm, said it
had received about 29,000 claims from last weekend’s storms,
more than three-quarters of them for house damage.
Two of its peers, USAA and Nationwide, said on Monday they
had received more than 12,000 claims, with the majority also for
homes. The three collectively account for about 16 percent of
the U.S. property insurance market.
Temperatures from 90 F (32 C) to more than 100 F (37.7 C)
were forecast from the plains to the Atlantic Coast on Tuesday
and on Wednesday, the Fourth of July holiday, the National
Weather Service said.
The upper Midwest could see more severe thunderstorms like
the one that ripped down trees and power lines in northern
Minnesota, knocked out the phone system in the city of Bemidji
and soaked Duluth, it said.
The death toll from the storms and high temperatures climbed
to at least 23 with five more heat-related deaths reported in
Nashville, Tennessee; Kansas City, Mo.; Philadelphia; and
Virginia.
Much of the damage to the power grid was blamed on last
weekend’s rare “derecho,” a big, powerful and long-lasting
straight-line wind storm that blew from the Midwest to the
Atlantic Ocean.
