Restaurants shut, subway riders are stranded in near-record heat

[Trainspotter 0]

Restaurants shut, subway riders are stranded in near-record heat

BY EDGAR SANDOVAL and STEPHANIE GASKELL

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

June 10th 2008

 

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Handschuh/News

Kids cook up creative ways to cool off

Monday in a Washington Heights park.

[/float]The city's early season heat wave snarled subway lines, knocked out power in eateries in parts of Brooklyn and left schoolkids sweltering in classrooms.

 

Straphangers were stuck waiting for and trains in sweltering subway stations as near-record temperatures shut some signal systems for a second day.

 

During rush hour, dozens of riders stormed out of the Lexington Ave./63rd St. station, warning incoming passengers that "there are no trains going to Queens!" Some waited more than 45 minutes for a train before giving up. "It's hot, sticky, crowded and smelly," said Alicia Moore, a 24-year-old teacher. "It's not a good situation during a hot day like today."

 

John Cannon, 24, had a rough time trying to get a train in Brooklyn to get to his warehouse job.

 

"I hate it," he said. "It's hot."

 

NYC Transit officials said the and were running last night, but warned riders to expect "residual delays."

 

Power failures cause the subway's signal systems to stop working. MTA officials had to bring in generators until things were working again.

 

There were "sporadic" failures across the city and Westchester, affecting about 2,000 of Con Ed's 3.2 million customers.

 

A fire at an electrical switching station in West Orange, N.J., knocked out power to nearly 75,000 customers of Public Service Electric & Gas in Essex County.

 

In Brooklyn, businesses on Smith St. were recovering from Sunday night's power failures.

 

The Boerum Hill Food Co. - which lost power for 15 hours - had to throw out food. Workers put up a sign saying: "Closed. No Power. We Love You Con Ed."

 

As temperatures inched toward 100 degrees for the third straight day, the city fell just short of breaking a record high of 97 degrees, set in 1933.

 

"We missed the record by one degree," said National Weather Service spokesman Jim Connolly - but there's still a chance of record-breaking heat in the city today.

 

The record for Tuesday is 95 degrees set in 1984. Forecasters are predicting a high of 97 degrees.

 

City schools were also hit hard by the heat wave as many classrooms were without air conditioning.

 

"It's crazy hot in there. It's insane!" said Sheridian Duncan, 12, who attends Intermediate School 285 in Brooklyn. "My sweat started falling on my notebook."

 

Mayor Bloomberg said while most schools don't have air conditioners, cooling classrooms is a luxury a cash-strapped city can't afford.

 

"We can spend money on teachers or we can spend money on air conditioning. There isn't money to do everything," he said. "The good news is that most of the heat tends to come during the summer [when school is out]."

 

FDNY officials reported more than 42 heat-related emergency calls Monday; none were life-threatening.

[KTrainExp 16]

Global Warming...

[sebbieprops 0]

Global Warming...

 

So, we had three days in June in the high 90's.

 

Do you remember what an unseasonably cold April and May we had?

 

I'm still not convinced by Al Gore's Convenient Lie.