Free Republic

Oregon is reported 107 deaths as a result of the extreme heat wave that recently the Northwest. Temperatures in the state on June 28 climbed to a record-breaking 116 degrees. In what Oregon officials are calling a "mass casualty event," 67 of the deaths were reported in Multnomah County, which includes Portland. Forty of the deaths have been ruled hyperthermia, which is when the body overheats. The extreme heat continued into the July Fourth weekend. The high in Portland on Thursday was about 79 degree. Some of the deaths were the result of people not having access to fans or...

Jerome Murdough was just looking for a warm place to sleep on a chilly night last month when he curled up in an enclosed stairwell on the roof of a Harlem public housing project where he was arrested for trespassing. A week later, the mentally ill homeless man was found dead in a Rikers Island jail cell that four city officials say had overheated to at least 100 degrees, apparently because of malfunctioning equipment. The officials told The Associated Press that the 56-year-old former Marine was on anti-psychotic and anti-seizure medication, which may have made him more vulnerable to heat....

Temperatures are rising and so are reports of infants and toddlers dying from being trapped inside sizzling automobiles. A researcher says 18 children have died of hyperthermia since the beginning of the year, with eight deaths reported since June 13. That's the largest number of fatalities through the first half of a year since Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University, began tracking the data in the late 1990s. Government and safety experts are telling parents that they never should leave children in an unattended vehicle or allow kids to play in cars and trucks....

LAPLACE -- A still-unidentified man was reported barking like a dog at passing cars and rolling on the ground, until he was taken to River Parishes Hospital with a high fever and died an hour later. Maj. Michael Tregre of the St. John Parish Sheriff's Office reported that the sheriff's office was notified Friday afternoon of the strange, dog-like behavior of the man, who appeared to be in his mid-20s. A deputy who arrived at the scene on La. Highway 628 found him lying in the roadside, breathing heavily but otherwise not responding. An ambulance took the man to River...