Thursday, July 8, 1999 Older Editions

Beating the heat

By Taylor Armerding

Several hours of rain Sunday morning were enough to wash away Andover's traditional pancake breakfast in The Park and all but an impromptu Fourth of July Parade. But the rain wasn't nearly enough to turn down the heat.

Local residents, along with the rest of the region, roasted under a blowtorch of a sun and suffocating humidity for most of the holiday weekend and the first half of this week, with temperatures well into the 90s every day.

By Wednesday, after a line of powerful thunderstorms had moved through town the previous evening, at least the humidity had dropped.

And overall, things functioned reasonably well, given the conditions. While there were scattered power failures in town over the weekend, there was no major blackout. While elders and the sick are always susceptible to extreme heat, there were no reports of injury or death caused by the weather.

And among the town's youth contingent, the staff of Youth Services and the Department of Community Services just made sure they had plenty to drink, and played games a bit less aerobically challenging during the heat of the day.

Kim Stamas, of Community Services, said the department was "trying to limit outdoor time with our camps, and just play more quiet games."

Those in all-day camp programs were sent to Pomps Pond earlier in the day than usual, where there was not only swimming, but sailing as well.

"And thankfully," she said, "tomorrow (Wednesday) is an all-day field trip to the Museum of Science, so about 300 of our kids will be inside all day."

Youth Services Director Bill Fahey, whose summer programs serve hundreds of children in the 11-15 age range, said the programs continue through the heat, with some modifications.

"We lucked out yesterday (Monday) he said. "We had a group going up to the Pemi River in New Hampshire, so that was a good way to keep cool."

In general, he said, the staff tries to make sure that the kids are "loaded up with sunblock and have plenty to drink," and that some of the activities are toned down a bit.

"We've got a mountain biking program today," he said, "and we made it a little less aggressive than usual. The staff was saying that the kids wanted to take longer breaks, too."

The new skate park, he said, "is definitely affected by the weather. I went out and closed it down this afternoon, because it was 96 degrees, and the kids just won't stop skating. But we'll open it up again after 5 p.m."

For elders, there were plenty of places to keep cool. Roberto Alvarez de Sotomayor, rental manager at Andover Commons, a 167-unit complex for elders and the disabled, said each unit has an air conditioner, and there is also a large multi-purpose room where tenants could come if they wanted things even cooler.

Elsewhere in town, the Senior Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Memorial Hall Library offers air-conditioned reading space until 9 p.m.

Even with the demand for electric power setting almost daily records throughout the region, there were no blackouts in Andover, according to Public Works Director Robert McQuade.

The town did get a preliminary call from the town's power supplier, Massachusetts Electric, asking it to be prepared to "shed the load," or use available generators at the local power plant and elsewhere, in order to enable Mass Electric to divert power to other communities that had power failures.

But as of Wednesday morning, there had been no official order to switch to generators.

Still, according to Mass Electric spokeswoman Karen Bernardino, the demand created by the heat wave had the utility in "a critical situation."

"We're holding on and hoping," she said Tuesday morning.

The demand for electricity is, apparently, one of the downsides of the roaring economy.

"This is an unusual temperature surge at an early time of the season," Bernardino said, "but part of what's driving the record demand is that there is a very strong economy. Most businesses are air conditioned, and the No. 1 draw of electricity is air conditioning.

She said she knows that curtailing regular activities is a "great inconvenience" to customers, but urges them to take the kinds of simple conservation measures that can lower demand enough to avoid the so-called "rolling blackouts" that sometimes occur when the demand simply outstrips supply.

"We're asking people to curtail their use of major appliances like washers and dryers until after dark," she said, "and to use attic and ceiling fans, which help lower the need for air conditioning."

People can also close off rooms they won't be using, pull the shades in rooms that get direct sun, and go to malls, movie theaters or other public places that are air conditioned.

Everyone, especially elders, should drink plenty of water, she said.

Finally, those who are on life-support systems should make sure they have battery power available, in case there is a blackout.

Part of the problem, Bernardino said, is that the heat wave is not confined to one area of the country. "The Midwest is in a heat crisis, and so is the entire eastern seaboard, so it's not just New England."

Once temperatures drop, however, it will not take days, or even hours, for the crisis to abate. "Once either the heat or the humidity drops, we'll be OK," she said.