''It was too hot to stay inside, so everyone was sitting on their stoops talking to each other,'' said Lori Grimaldi, who spent that night on her porch eating ice cream and other perishable food with her neighbors. ''No one thought it was going to last, so it was fun.''

But by yesterday afternoon, as residents spent their third day struggling to keep cool without fans, air conditioning, or refrigerated drinks, the fun was definitely over.

After five days of blistering heat, along with a record-setting week of power consumption and a line of thunderstorms that moved through the area Friday afternoon, more than 10,000 NStar Electric customers remained without electricity early yesterday, sparking complaints by residents and concern among city officials.

Boston Globe

-- spider (spider@web.com), August 12, 2001

Answers

Who would have thought that such a thing would happen in New England, before California. I have a sister there who suffered through it and was having fits.

-- Nancy7 (nancy7@hotmail.com), August 12, 2001.