FRONT BRINGS STORMS, COOLER WEATHER TO AREA; HOSPITALS TREAT VICTIMS OF HEAT STRESS

Brief but violent thunderstorms heralded the arrival of a cold front in Southeast Missouri Monday night. It sparked fires, caused power outages, tore the underpinnings of some mobile homes loose, and dropped temperatures 15 degrees.

After four straight days of heat advisories, the region can feel some relief. The storm came in advance of the front that the National Weather Service predicted would pass through the area before dawn today.

High temperatures are expected to be around 80 today, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures are expected to be in the 80s Wednesday and Thursday before climbing back into the low 90s on Friday.

Milton Mouser expected the fire lightning set in the barn behind his farm would still be burning today. Mouser, the president of the Millersville Fire District and a volunteer firefighter, said he and the other firefighters answered a call after 7 p.m. that lightning had set a bale of hay on fire at Joe Miller's farm on County Road 351.

After dousing that fire, firefighters saw smoke, started looking for the source and found it in a barn filled with hay owned by George Mack Miller and Jack Randol that is accessible only through Mouser's farm off the same county road, about 2 1/2 miles from Highway 72, Mouser said.

He said they found the barn fully engulfed and could only make sure it didn't spread.

Two trailer parks near the Fruitland exit on Interstate 55 -- Weiss and Mulberry -- reported that the wind tore underpinnings of some mobile homes loose, said Mike Niemeier, assistant coordinator of the Cape Girardeau County Emergency Preparedness Office.

Niemeier said the winds also blew down a sign along Interstate 55 announcing Trail of Tears State Park and knocked over some trees.

Patrick Kelley of the Jackson Police Department reported that a large tree fell and blocked Harmony Lane in Jackson. The storm caused power outages around the city.

Lightning started fires at transformers at Randol Avenue and Lymnwood Drive plus Valley View Lane and Kage Road, said Mark Hasheider of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department. Cape Girardeau police reported power outages all over town, some knocking out traffic signals.

The transformation from Monday afternoon's sweltering heat was dramatic. Matt Cook splashed his way through the day.

The 9-year-old boy and his neighborhood buddies beat the sweltering heat Monday by sliding down a makeshift water slide on Kathy Porter's steep front lawn on North Fountain Street. The slide ended in the Porter's swimming pool set up on the sidewalk.

"It's fast and I like water," said a dripping-wet Cook. "And it's too hot to be doing anything else."

Porter's garden hose provided the steady stream of water needed for the slippery slide.

"Our water's been running since 8 o'clock this morning," she said as she watched the boys plunge down the slide.

Porter said her pool has been a popular spot during the recent heat wave. She said she empties the pool each day and pours the day-old water on her flowers.

The mercury reached 100 degrees Saturday and the outdoors seemed like a blast furnace again Sunday, with temperatures reaching 98 degrees. Temperatures were in the muggy high-90s again Monday.

Cape Girardeau's two hospitals have treated at least a dozen people for heat-related illness in their emergency rooms since Friday.

Southeast Missouri Hospital treated four people suffering from the heat.

St. Francis Medical Center has treated at least eight people over the past four days. About half of the cases involved elderly residents. The hospital's emergency room treated four people for dehydration on Sunday alone, said hospital spokesman Mike Simmons. On Monday emergency room personnel saw several more people suffering from heat-related illness.

"The last time I remember a large number of patients with heat exhaustion was when Clinton was here," said Paul Salmon, a flight nurse with Southeast Missouri Hospital's LifeBeat helicopter.

President Clinton held a campaign rally in Cape Girardeau's Capaha Park last August. An estimated 100 people were treated for heat-related illnesses, and medical personnel gave ice water and cold rags to several thousand that day. About 30 people were shuttled across Broadway to Southeast's emergency room for treatment.