37 die in US heatwave

Residents across the US south and midwest were hopeful that the weekend would bring some relief from brutal temperatures that have killed 37 people and set records for power demand.

Forecasters expected temperatures in Memphis and other parts of the Mississippi Valley to drop slightly today, into the 30s C, a relief from several consecutive days of triple digits (38 C temperatures and above).

In Tennessee, the Shelby County medical examiner’s office confirmed today that heat caused the death of a 53-year-old man found in his apartment, bringing the death toll in Memphis alone to eight.

In all, 37 deaths in the south and midwest have been confirmed as heat-related, and heat is suspected in 10 more, authorities said.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, shut down one of three units at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Athens, Alabama, yesterday because water drawn from the Tennessee River was exceeding a 90 F (32 C) average over 24 hours.

“We don’t believe we’ve ever shut down a nuclear unit because of river temperature,” said John Moulton, spokesman for the Knoxville-based utility.

The shutdown posed no safety threat, but it came as TVA hit records for power consumption in the past two weeks in its service area covering most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.