US heat wave sears California as St Louis copes

LOS ANGELES, July 24 (Reuters) Californians sweltered again in a heat wave that has set records across the state and caused scattered power outages while St Louis and New York City struggled with outages that began last week.

As yesteray afternoon, 100,000 homes and businesses were without power in California, a survey of the state's big utilities showed.

Even in usual havens from the heat like San Francisco, temperatures soared to records on the weekend with the Bay City hitting 30 Degrees Celsius on Saturday. In places used to the heat like Palm Springs and the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, the heat wave is making history. In Woodland Hills in the Valley, the temperature yesterday hit at least 100 (37.7 Celsius) for the 18th straight day.

An estimated 800,000 Californians experienced at least temporary loss of electricity during the weekend as air conditioners battled temperatures as high as 50 Degrees Celsius in Palm Springs, California, and more than 43 Degrees Celsius in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles and the Central Valley east of San Francisco.

In the northern part of the state on Saturday Sacramento hit a record 42.7 Degrees Celsius and 44.4 Degrees Celsius readings were reported in Red Bluff, Stockton and Modesto.

Southern California's temperatures fell a bit yesterday but were expected to rise again today when the state's power grid is expected to have yet another day of record demand. Even with the high demand, no emergency blackouts are foreseen, said Gregg Fishman, spokesman for California Independent System Operator, the manager of the grid.

The California power grid operator called a ''Stage One'' power emergency on Saturday, the first of the summer, meaning there was little reserve electricity available.

In Missouri and Illinois, the Red Cross was sheltering people from 750 homes and had delivered 50,000 meals to homes without electricity.

''We kept the shelters open over the weekend even though it cooled a little,'' said Jessica Willingham of the St Louis Area Red Cross. She noted that the highs on Saturday and yesterday in St Louis were in the mid- to upper-80s.

''Currently, it's 30 Degrees Celsius so that's not too bad but if you haven't had power since Wednesday,'' she said yesterday evening.

''That makes it a little tough.'' About 300,000 homes and businesses remained without power after violent storms last week in St Louis.

US President George W. Bush approved Missouri's request for expedited diaster relief on Friday, clearing the way for federal help.

A total of 1.1 million homes and businesses have been without power at some point since Wednesday night, said Ameren Corp, owner of the local power company.

In New York City, about 9,000 customers remained without power yesterday in the borough of Queens, down from 25,000 powerless homes and businesses last Thursday, said Mike Clendenin of Consolidated Edison.

REUTERS AB VA KN0927