Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
``It appears that the worst is over, but nobody knows where it's going to stop,'' Medical Examiner Edmund Donoghue told a news conference.
Donoghue, who on Monday had said the city's death toll would likely hit 300, predicted the final casualty count from five days of 90-plus heat would exceed 400.
The additional deaths in Chicago raised the national death toll to at least 669 as officials in other states ruled that heat was a cause of or had contributed to deaths last week, when the Northeast and Midwest were gripped by a suffocating combination of heat and humidity.
The death toll topped that of 1987, when at least 96 deaths from the Plains to the East Coast were blamed on heat, but didn't approach the estimated 1,500 fatalities from a 1980 heat wave.
In Milwaukee, officials said heat caused or contributed to 60 deaths.
Among them were about 18 people who were taking anti-psychotic drugs that block the body's ability to release heat, said Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen.
In Ocean County, N.J., an 82-year-old woman remained hospitalized in critical condition after being brought in with a 108-degree temperature from a Point Pleasant Beach boarding home that had no air conditioning.
Chicago authorities said 137 heat-related casualties were found in funeral homes over the past two days in addition to the 239 examined at the morgue since the heat wave began, peaking Thursday at 106 degrees.
The deaths were classified as heat-related based on the temperature of the bodies and certain physical signs, including bleeding and bruising of the corpses.
About 100 bodies remained to be examined in funeral homes across the Chicago area and 50 to 100 were still at the morgue. Many of the bodies were badly decomposed.
With more space available in the morgue, workers began to call hospitals Tuesday, asking officials to release to the morgue any bodies they may have been storing.
Donoghue couldn't immediately say how many heat-related casualties he expected to find in the hospitals.
Besides the fatalities already discovered, rescue workers said they expected to find more bodies throughout the week in overheated apartments.
In Cook County, officials classify a death as heat-related if the heat was a contributing factor.
Definitions of heat-related death vary in different cities and states, with some classifying a death as heat-related only if heat was the primary cause.
Donoghue said the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes the way Cook County classifies heat-related deaths.
``The truth of the matter is that we probably have underestimated the number of heat deaths,'' he said.
Dr. Sherrie Wainwright, an epidemiologist with the CDC's Center for Environmental Health, said it's up to individual medical examiners to decide whether to classify deaths as heat-related.
``There's no uniform federal definition for heat-related deaths,'' she said.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB