Scorching heat blamed for at least 13 deaths in Texas and another in Louisiana blanketed more of the Southeast on Wednesday, stretching government warnings of dangerous, triple-digit temperatures eastward into Mississippi and Tennessee.
California, meanwhile, was facing its first major heat wave of the year. The National Weather Service warned that the dry, hot, windy conditions were ripe for dangerous fires in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
"Usually I just come at noon for the meal," Clint Hickman, still waiting for his power to come back on, said in a phone interview Wednesday. "It's kind of nice to have a little cool air, so I came a little earlier." Among the heat's casualties was a man who died late Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana, the second heat-related death in the state in an unusually warm June. The 49-year-old from neighboring Bossier City had been found lying on a sidewalk in Shreveport, where Sunday's temperature hit 97 degrees -- 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the average for the date.
Eleven of the Texas heat-related deaths occurred in Webb County, which includes Laredo. The dead ranged in age from 60 to 80 years old and many had underlying health conditions, according to Webb County Medical Examiner Dr. Corinne Stern, who said the level of heat in the county was unprecedented. The unusually high temperatures were brought on by a heat dome that has taxed the Texas power grid and brought record highs to parts of the state, according to meteorologists.
"It's relief from the extreme heat," Jackson said. "It's not really an end to a heat wave; it's just an end to the extreme part of the heat wave."
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