Farm Aid Plans Evolve as Heat, Drought Persist

Residents of parts of the Midwest were warned of unhealthful, stagnant air as a stifling heat wave shattered records again Friday in at least 20 cities across the nation’s midsection and into Upstate New York.

Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad on Friday declared a statewide disaster because of the drought. He said that experts had told him the state may lose half its corn crop, the bedrock of its economy.

The National Corn Growers Assn., which conducted a survey in 19 states, predicted that the U.S. corn harvest will be 42% smaller than last year’s.

The White House said President Reagan will travel Thursday to the Midwest to talk to farmers, and Branstad said he would have lunch with the President and make an appeal for drought-relief measures.

Agriculture Secretary Richard E. Lyng, after meeting with the governors of six farming states, said Friday that Congress has enough money available to allow for “generous and compassionate” relief, but that not all drought-stricken farms will survive.

House and Senate leaders are at work on a drought-relief bill that would pay up to $100,000 on farm losses and try to help farmers and farm towns with the credit problems that come with a disastrous year.

The heat was blamed Friday for the death of a 3 1/2-month-old Pennsylvania girl who was left in a car for five hours, officials said.

Among cities with record temperatures for the date, Elkins, W. Va., in the Appalachian Mountains, usually a cool spot, reported a high of 93 degrees. Nashville tied its record high of 101 degrees, set in 1874.

In the Chicago area, a “yellow alert” advising people with respiratory or heart problems to stay indoors, was issued Thursday and prevailed into Friday.

Residents of industrial southeastern Michigan, including Detroit, also remained under an air stagnation advisory Friday. Air quality in Kentucky’s five major urban areas--Ashland, Lexington, Louisville, northern Kentucky and Paducah--was in the “unhealthful” category Friday because of high ozone levels.