A brutal heat wave sizzled on with temperatures well over 100 degrees baking water-starved lawns and warping railroad tracks so badly that two freight trains derailed.
Dry, shifting soil caused a break on Sunday in a 90-inch water main that provides a third of the water to 1.3 million people in Tarrant County, including the cities of Fort Worth and Arlington. All outdoor watering was banned until Wednesday."Oh, dear, almost everything's going to die," Arlington homeowner Carol Beckman said as she watered her garden. Insurance won't cover the cost of a lost garden, she said.
The blistering heat climbed to 107 in the Dallas area, hampering efforts to fight grass and brush fires that charred hundreds of acres in north Texas and destroying a home and forcing the evacuation of about 100 people from rural Parker County west of Fort Worth.
"We're going to be able to continue to provide water to all our citizens," said Ron Carlson, a water department engineer. "But our capacity is going to be very, very taxed compared to what it normally is."
In Oklahoma, officials grappled with arson fires that burned more than 10,000 acres.
Sunday's temperature in Dallas hit 107, making it the 28th consecutive triple-digit day, second in the record books to the 1980 streak of 42 days. Dallas' overnight low of 77, however, was the first time the city has cooled below 80 since July 19.
Ninety-nine deaths statewide have been blamed on heat-related causes, pushing the nationwide total to 155, including 29 in Louisiana and 19 in Oklahoma.
A high of 108 smothered Shreveport, La., on Sunday, and Oklahoma City had its 16th straight day of 100-plus readings with a high of 107.
Heat-warped railroad tracks derailed 13 cars of a 112-car freight train about 8 miles north of Fort Worth on Saturday, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said.
Davis blamed it on a "sun kink," when a sudden change in temperature or extreme heat expands the rail and moves it out of alignment.