Blackouts In Chicago

NYT is reporting blackouts in Chicago due to the heatwave. Chicago officials evacuated about 1,200 residents -- many of them elderly -- from blacked-out high-rises in a densely populated area of the city's South Side on Tuesday morning, when the temperature hit 95 by 1 p.m. City officials said up to 20,000 people lost electricity beginning Monday evening.

''It's a mess,'' said Lenora Stinson, 47, who was in an 11th floor apartment when the power died. ''It's a big mess. Everybody's panicking -- they don't know where they're going.''

About 400 of the most fragile evacuees were taken to hotels, 75 were placed in dorms at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the rest were taken to the nearby McCormick Place convention center, said Cortez Trotter, chief emergency officer for Chicago. About a dozen were sent to hospitals.

Deaths due to the heat -- global warming -- were reported in several states: In Illinois, the Cook County medical examiner's office reported two heat-related deaths in the Chicago area on Monday, both men with heart disease, and a third death was reported in the central part of the state.

A 15-year-old boy died Tuesday in Georgia, a day after he collapsed from the heat during football practice, officials said. Oklahoma authorities reported two deaths during the weekend and one woman died during the weekend in Missouri. That brought Missouri's total since July 12 and Oklahoma's to 13 since July 13, officials said.

Animals were also at risk: Farmers in Ohio resorted to fans and cold showers to keep their livestock cool. Frozen water bottles were placed next to rabbits Tuesday at the Auglaize County Fair in Wapakoneta.

''This kind of heat can be deadly to animals,'' said dairy farmer Clark Emmons at Fayette, Ohio. His milk production was down about 10 pounds per cow because of the heat.

The heat wave had spread across the Midwest during the weekend and on Monday.

So far, we've seen blackouts in NY, LA, Chicago, St. Louis, and parts of Pennsylvania, at least. Americans used to have the best electric system in the world. But it wasn't built to cope with global warming.

Even a half-way competent president would have been energized to do something about this issue by now. But whether it's instantly by a Category 5 Hurricane or slowly by repeated blackouts, Bush seems completely unconcerned that America's cities are getting hit in ways that they can't handle.