Thirty more names were added to the list Sunday and officials were confident the number would go even higher. The heat has contributed to the deaths of 80 people in Illinois and at least 182 people nationwide since July 19.
     A cold front brought much-needed relief to the Midwest, where high temperatures Sunday were 10-20 degrees cooler than the day before.
     Temperatures may have cooled in Missouri, but authorities in St. Louis counted two more heat-related deaths, bringing the state’s toll to 44.
     Emily Brown, 69, of St. Louis, had found ways to cope with the hot weather in an older brick home that’s not air-conditioned.
     “You cope because you’re not in the same place all the time,” she said. “You go to the store, where it’s air-conditioned. Or you ride the buses. They have air-conditioners. Nobody’s in the heat for 24 hours straight.”
     On Chicago’s North Side, dozens of residents have been without electricity since Friday evening when the Commonwealth Edison transformers serving the area broke down.
     “People are furious,” said Terry Levin, a spokesman for the city of Chicago. “We do know of cases where people have had to throw out whole freezer loads of food.” 

Heat Sears Plains, Mid-Atlantic
The cold front had not reached Oklahoma, where an excessive heat advisory remained in effect. Four heat-related deaths have been reported in that state and authorities said they believed a 6-year-old girl may be the fifth victim.
     She was found in a closed-up mobile home that had no air conditioner.
     Three heat-related deaths have been reported in North Carolina, where high temperatures pushed toward the 100-degree mark again Sunday.
     “It’s hotter here than south Louisiana, where we moved from,” said Raymond Rodgers as he stood in the sun painting outdoor furniture with his 14-year-old daughter in Raleigh.
     More than 50 bodies had been sent to the Cook County morgue from Friday to Sunday, said Chicago Health Commissioner John Wilhelm. A refrigerated trailer was brought in to store bodies until autopsies could be done.
     “That shouldn’t be taken to mean that the death toll is going to approach anything like 1995,” Wilhelm said. “It just means that what they do have is forcing them to operate beyond normal capacity.” 

Chicago Mayor Frustrated
The heat wave of 1995 contributed to more than 700 Chicago-area deaths. While city officials said they’ve learned many lessons about helping elderly and other vulnerable residents handle the heat, Mayor Richard M. Daley said people have to take responsibility for checking up on loved ones.
     “Why don’t family members check on other family members and parents?” Daley said. “Why are they calling the city to do that? That is the most frustrating thing in any crisis.”
     For the Folak family on Chicago’s North Side, it was more frustrating to find that their concern from a longtime tenant couldn’t save him from the grim reality of prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures.
     The body of Eddie Slautas was discovered Friday night in the apartment where he lived for 70 years, above a tavern owned by Bill Folak and his wife, Sandy.
     Slautas, who would have turned 75 on Sunday, had several fans, but he refused the Folaks’ offer of an air conditioner, Sandy Folak said.
     “He said, ‘Why should I make my electric bill higher. The fan is good enough,“‘ she said.