Farmers Seek Divine Relief From Hellish Heat

DALLAS —  Farmers on the southern plains gathered Sunday to pray for rain for their withered crops in the midst of a heat wave already blamed for 110 deaths, including 43 illegal immigrants found dead where they tried to cross deserts and open range. One official said the death toll is likely to rise.

Dallas reached 100 degrees by early afternoon, the city’s 14th straight day of triple-digit temperatures, and highs were forecast to hit 100 or more at least through Wednesday across much of the state’s plains areas.

It’s the worst summer heat wave for Texas since 1980, when the state had 42 consecutive days of 100-degree temperatures.

Readings also hit 100 by midday at Altus, Okla.; Jacksonville, Ark.; and Las Vegas. Also, Death Valley topped out at 124, Phoenix hit 103 and Lake Havasu City, Ariz., made it to 110.

On the plains north of Texas, at least one church made a change in Sunday services to follow Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating’s suggestion that everyone in his state pray for rain. State officials estimated that the heat and drought have cost Oklahoma’s farmers and ranchers at least $2 billion.

Near Geronimo, Okla., farmer Jack Musgrove, 79, had his own perspective on praying for rain.

“I did my 50% by planting the crop,” Musgrove said Sunday. “God has to do the other 50%.”

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Musgrove said he wasn’t even hoping for a yield from his cornfields but was just cutting up the stunted plants for livestock feed. “It’s so hot the fields are melting,” he said.

Six of the heat-related deaths have been reported in Oklahoma, and the state’s health commissioner, Dr. Jerry Nida, said the Oklahoma Department of Health is monitoring nursing homes and trying to develop a network to protect the elderly who live elsewhere.

Texas had 79 deaths blamed on the heat, including the illegal immigrants, and California, Arizona and Missouri had one each. Louisiana reported 22 deaths, more than in 1996 and 1997 combined.

In addition to the U.S. deaths, four people have died in Mexico in the last two days of heat-related causes in San Luis Rio Colorado, about 20 miles south of Yuma, Ariz. Temperatures have climbed to 120 degrees in recent days in San Luis.