People headed for air-conditioned buildings and water parks Wednesday and shaded their pets and livestock as a deadly week-old heat wave lingered across the eastern United States. Heat warnings and advisories were in effect Wednesday for Washington, D.C., Virginia, North and South Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and parts of Pennsylvania, New York and Georgia, the National Weather Service said, according to AP. The heat has been blamed for at least 28 deaths in the Phoenix area, most of them homeless people, along with at least four in Missouri, two young children left in hot cars in Oklahoma, and one each in Kentucky, Ohio and Mississippi. A cold front promised relief Wednesday for Arkansas and other states. By late Wednesday morning, rain and thunderstorms marking the front stretched from Texas to northern New York state. The front touched off storms Tuesday that battered parts of northern Ohio with hurricane-force wind. At least 30,000 FirstEnergy Corp. customers were without power Tuesday night. Meteorologists warned of a third straight day of dangerously hot and humid weather in parts of the Southeast. Florence, South Carolina, hit a record high of 101 (39 Celsius) on Tuesday, toppling the old record of 99 (37 Celsius) that had been on the books since 1949, the weather Service said. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, also peaked at a record 101 (30 Celsius). The heat was blamed for at least 1,200 cattle deaths in Nebraska.
