Troops help clear homes in heat-seared St. Louis

ST. LOUIS — The governor sent in the National Guard to evacuate people from their sweltering homes Thursday after storms knocked out power to more than 500,000 St. Louis-area households and businesses stewing in a deadly heat wave.

Utility crews raced to restore electricity, and Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency, granting the mayor's request to send in nearly 300 troops to take people to air-conditioned public buildings and to clear debris.

"We can't overemphasize the danger of this heat," Mayor Francis Slay said. "The longer the heat goes on and the power is out, the riskier it is."

City Health Director William Kincaid cautioned that the city's older houses, many made of red brick, could heat up like furnaces.

The heat has contributed to at least 22 deaths across the country in the last week.

Police used public-address speakers from their squad cars to announce locations of the community centers and other places designated as cooling centers. Volunteers went door to door, checking on people with no power to run fans or air conditioners.

The day's high was 97 degrees, but the humidity made it feel like 111.

The storms tore through the city a day earlier, ripping off a section of airport roof and dumping it on a highway. Windows were blown out of a hotel restaurant and a press box at Busch Stadium. At least three buildings collapsed, and more than 30 people were injured.

By Thursday evening, power had been restored to 160,000 customers, but new reports of outages kept coming in.

AmerenUE, the utility serving Missouri and Illinois, said it would restore power to hospitals, nursing homes, water-treatment plants and other "critical facilities" first.

The death toll from the heat wave that has gripped much of the country for the past week rose to at least 22 people in 10 states. Four more people died in the Chicago area, bringing the total number there to seven, officials said. Two have died in the Philadelphia area, two in Oklahoma City, two in Arkansas, two in Indiana and one each in South Dakota and Tennessee.

In St. Louis, officials reported the death of a 93-year-old woman who had air conditioning but no power.

Tropical storm hits Massachusetts

BOSTON — Tropical Storm Beryl made landfall on Nantucket early today, bringing a steady, driving rain to coastal Massachusetts.

The storm's center hit around 3 a.m., said Jack Beven, hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A tropical storm warning extended from Plymouth south and west to Woods Hole, including Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters said the storm may bring in tides of 1 to 3 feet above normal.

The storm was expected to weaken over the next 24 hours and lose tropical characteristics by Saturday morning.