TERRIFIC HEAT IN UNITED STATES

Northern Advocate, 11 July 1936, Page 7

TERRIFIC HEAT IN UNITED STATES

Ml RECORDS BROKEN

DROUGHT DOES ENORMOUS DAMAGE

Wnited Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph. — Copyright ,] (.Received 10 a.m.) NEW YORK, July 9. heat, born out of the parched drought areas in the middle west, broke all existing temperature records today in New York. Reflected heat from the pavements in Times Square sent the mercury up to 115 degrees.

In the man,-made canyons in the financial district, heat waves blurred the view of buildings. Five people died from heat. The entire eastern section of the States is sweltering. So intense is the heat that drawbridges ip the states of New York and New Jersey have been buckled through expanding beyond the designed limit. The only relief reported today was of dubious value. This was an electrical storm of tropical fury, which caused great damage in southern New England. 215 Deaths. A message from Chicago states that the total deaths from heat rose to 215 today as abnormal temperatures spread eastward. There were scattered showers, the heaviest falling at Effingham, Illinois, where the total fall was 2.42 inches. This was both tantalising and ineffective. The damage caused by the drought on the western prairies of the United States is estimated to have reached 200,000,000 dollars. Forest fires con- j tinue to break out. Wheat prices rose today in Winnipeg 1 to 11-18 cents per bushel. In Chicago the market finished 3-Bths to 1 5-Bths cents above yesterday’s closing price. Relief Measures. ~ The Government today declared a moratorium of one year on rural rehabilitation "loans aggregating 7,000,000 dollars to 30,000 farmers in 268 drought-stricken counties. At the Same time, it extended the Works Progress Administration emergency employment programme for the benefit of ; 20,000 sufferers in seven southern States, North and South Carolina, Ten- ( nessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia i and Alabama. (

Officials stated that the President is preparing to submit to next Congress a long range programme for converting the worst areas in the parched wheat country, known as the dust bowl, to pastureland, and for settling many of the present inhabitants elsewhere. .... •

Mr R. G. Tugwell, Under-Secretary for Agriculture, says he will tour the stricken north-west before completing arrangements for grants to sufferers. Three thousand workers are about to begin the construction of a lake of 20 square miles, which . is to he known as the Lac Qua! Parle project in Minnesota, The National Resources Committee, headed by the Secretary of the Interior, Mr H. L. Ickes, reports that the great plains area can be prevented from becoming a desert if a comprehensive soil programme is instituted within 10 years. Big game animals in the national parks—bison, elks, antelopes and deer—are threatened now by parched pasturage and next winter they may lack hay.