THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280619
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Staff writers Steve Stone, Mike Mather, Jon Frank, Cindy Clayton,
Larry Brown, Mara Stanley, Karen Jolly Davis and Jennifer Christman
sweated out this report.
LENGTH: Long : 167 lines
113 - 4 p.m., High Gate Greens, Virginia Beach.
Carpenters lift large coolers and let the cooling water flow over their heads and faces as they take a swig.
``We'll go through 10 gallons of water and 30 pounds of ice between five guys in a day,'' says John James, 30, who has been building houses 15 years. ``I feel like a rotisserie chicken up here.''
Brad Windes, 19, is undeterred. Despite being soaked with sweat, his hair matted to his brow, he climbs up and over boards like a monkey, pulling himself atop the second floor and walking out on a 2-inch beam. ``You drink plenty of water and just keep going.''
90 - 12:29 p.m., Charlie's Cafe, Granby Street, Norfolk.
Tracy Williams pauses to wipe his forehead, while flipping bacon, fajita meat and rye bread over the grill. Wise patrons head to rear seats to better feel the cool blast from the air conditioner.
``This is nothing but blaring heat,'' Williams says of working a grill this day. ``But you get used to it.''
25 - 2:50 p.m., Cassco Ice & Cold Storage, Norfolk.
``I wear two sweatpants and two sweatshirts,'' says employee ``Coco'' Williams, steam pouring from his mouth in this man-made piece of the Arctic. ``I come prepared.''
As the region weathered its longest heat wave - 16 consecutive days at or above 90 degrees - people at play and at work Thursday knew how hot it really was.
Seven staff writers fanned out in quest of the hottest and coldest spots and the people in them.
Armed with Sunbeam clock-style thermometers - model No. 90100, purchased for $3.68 each - they found it was a lot hotter at most places than at the National Weather Service office at Norfolk International Airport, where the official temperature was measured with a carefully calibrated, high-tech, sun-shielded thermometer.
120+ - 1:38 p.m., Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
Atop her surfside perch, 18-year-old lifeguard Ilinke Swart gets little relief from a stiff southerly breeze as the sun sends the thermometer off the scale.
It's a bitter irony that the non-cooling breeze is too strong to let her hoist the stand's orange umbrella and get some shade.
``I was worried my umbrella would fly away,'' she said. ``The one next to me did.''
115 , in the sand - Jockey's Ridge State Park, Nags Head, N.C.
Atop the East Coast's tallest sand dune, it's easy to imagine one has been transported to a desert. Feet roast in the sun-baked sand.
``I'm just sweating to death,'' says 12-year-old Angie Fowler of Pennsylvania as she trudges up the sandy slope.
In his red and white glider, Jeremy Cryor of Pennsylvania soars down the front face of the sandy slope, thermometer in hand. At the start of his 13-second flight, it was 90 degrees. On landing, 84.
``I know it feels cooler when you are up there with the wind blowing, but I never thought the temperature would actually change,'' Cryor says.
115 - 1:34 p.m., Pollard Street Playground, Norfolk.
There's narry a kid in sight. And just looking at the short, shiny, aluminum slide baking in the sun is enough to make one's bottom tighten in fear.
120+ - 2:10 p.m., Ninth Hole, Ocean View Golf Course, Norfolk.
A slight breeze off the Chesapeake Bay helps, but the heat persists. Most golfers are trying to avoid the heat wave by playing early in the morning or late at night.
``You don't stop golfers,'' pro shop attendant Ken Whitelaw says. ``They're going to play.''
96 - 12:55 p.m., the kiln room at D'Art Center, Norfolk.
These animals wish they had the shade of the zoo.
Inside the kiln, the temperature creeps toward 2,600 degrees, hardening clay animals and bowls.
107 - 12:20 p.m., Wallops Island Flight Facility.
``It's just plain hot out here,'' complains Jim Hengle, vice president of EER System's Inc. as he looks up at the five-story Conestoga rocket sitting on the launch pad.
It will be hotter here Aug. 6 when the rocket's motors ignite and it lifts off.
119 - 2:25 p.m., atop Dominion Tower, Norfolk.
``It's gonna give a false reading,'' George Miller's voice crackles over a two-way radio as he treks to the roof with a thermometer in hand.
The building engineer doesn't look so good when he returns.
``It looked like it was going to go past 119,'' George says. ``But I wasn't gonna stay up there.''
52 - 4:30 p.m., Norfolk Florist and Gifts, Norfolk.
It's a good day to be with the flowers, says Tamara Olive.
``I'm just happy to be working in here,'' she says as she looks out of the flower cooler at the afternoon sun.
120+ - 2:16 p.m., Charles Barker Lexus, Virginia Beach.
An oven on wheels: the silver 1995 Lexus SC 300 Coup with black leather interior has been sitting in the sun all day. The thermometer maxes out.
Air conditioning, at full blast, pulls the needle down to 110 in 10 minutes. It would cool faster if the car was moving, the salesman says.
90 - 1:55 p.m., Portsmouth City Jail.
The kitchen usually runs at temperatures above 115 degrees - 130 when the dishwasher is going - says Larry Wallace, who works for ARAmark Food Service.
``It's cooler today,'' says Wallace, thanks to an air-exchange system that helps keep temperatures bearable during summer.
93 - 12:55 p.m., Colley Cantina, Norfolk.
Lonnie Jacobs and Ron Ramirez are the only customers eating lunch at the open-air cafes along Colley Avenue. Chairs at Elliott's, Sam's and Kelly's are empty.
``As long as there is shade and the air is moving, it's okay,'' said Jacobs. ``Also, I've got on loose, natural fiber clothing. That's a real key. Never wear polyester in this weather.'' Fashion for survival.
101 - Coastal Import Repair Ltd., Norfolk.
``If someone is missing, we just look in a car,'' says shop owner Matthew Stewart of mechanics who mysteriously vanish. Chances are, they are inside a car with the AC running - ``Just to make sure it's working,'' of course.
100 - 2:30 p.m., Portsmouth SPCA.
Lisa Widick has moved all her dogs indoors. The afternoon heat was just too much in the facility's outdoor kennel.
The animals don't make it through such weather without considerable discomfort, Widick said. ``And the bigger dogs don't eat as much when it's hot. Today, there has been a little bit of a breeze, but it doesn't help much.''
80 - 12:15 p.m., WVEC TV-13 studios, Norfolk.
``Outside it feels like 103 degrees,'' Rhonda Bentley tells the television audience during her noon-hour weather report.
It didn't feel much cooler on the studio set. ``It gets hot under the lights,'' Bentley says.
94 - 3:45 p.m., Norfolk Southern coal terminal, Norfolk.
Johnny Gay Sr., 51, has humped coal cars at the Lamberts Point terminal for 32 years. He is used to hot, hard work and long hours.
But not like this.
``It's been a pretty long stretch,'' says Gay, who comes in at 3 p.m. and stays until 11 p.m.
He helps line up coal cars as they come in from Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. At Lamberts Point they are dumped into freighters heading to ports all over the world.
``I come to work in the hottest part of the day,'' Gay said. ``At 10 p.m., the breeze sometimes stops and the humidity gets real bad. . . . When you get between those steel cars, and there's no breeze, the water just pours off of you.''
83 - 4:50 p.m., Christmas Attic, Virginia Beach.
Heat sells.
``They come in to get cool, not intending to buy,'' clerk Sandra Landea says of customers exploring the jam-packed Oceanfront store. ``But they see what there is and they walk out with Christmas stuff.''
Somehow it feels even cooler than what the thermometer says. Maybe it's the fake snow on all the decorations. Maybe just the thought that Christmas will come. And with it, winter. Ah, winter.
Now there's a cool thought. ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Color photos
Photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Terence Langley, left, hoists a cooler that pours as much over his
face as into his mouth. He and John James will help other workers go
through 10 gallons of water in a day.
by CNB