VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Edward Landry came to this resort city to try to beat the heat. Instead, it was so hot he couldn’t even wiggle his toes in the sand.
Landry, of Amarillo, Texas, joined hundreds of other vacationers lounging beneath giant umbrellas Thursday to escape a searing heat wave that finally showed signs of breaking after tormenting the East and Midwest for nearly a week.
“It’s tolerable as long as you’re around some water and the breeze is blowing somewhat and you can get wet,” said Landry, 39, drinking bottled beer as his wife rubbed sunscreen on his back.
The heat wave left behind scattered power outages and at least 22 deaths. More than a dozen states, from Georgia to Connecticut, were still under heat warnings as temperatures rose into the 90s or higher. Virginia Beach reached a high of 99 degrees, but the humidity made it feel like 111.
The temperature climbed to record levels in several cities, including 97 in Bridgeport, Conn.; 98 in Islip, N.Y.; and 100 in Newark, N.J., and Baltimore, according to the National Weather Service.
Some relief was expected after nightfall, when temperatures were forecast to fall into the upper 80s, with drier air. Temperatures in Chicago and Detroit dropped on Thursday, and cooler air should arrive by Friday in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.
Authorities have confirmed that heat played a role in at least 22 deaths in nine states since the scorching temperatures set in on Sunday. Heat was suspected in at least eight other deaths.
In Illinois, at least six heat-related deaths were confirmed this week in Cook County, and police believe another six deaths on Wednesday could be heat-related.
In northern Indiana, heat killed an inmate at the mostly un-air-conditioned Indiana State Prison and contributed to the death of another, officials said Thursday.
Consolidated Edison, the utility that serves much of the New York metropolitan area, said underground electrical problems on Manhattan’s East side left 22,400 people without power. On Long Island, 12,000 people were in the dark.
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