A scorching early-summer heat wave that has baked much of Texas and Oklahoma for the past week was spreading across the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, with dangerous heat forecasts reaching all the way to the Florida Keys. In Austin, Texas, where the heat index climbed to 118 degrees Fahrenheit last week — the highest on record in the city — officials were preparing for daily high temperatures to remain above 100 “for the foreseeable future,” said Kevin Snipes, the city’s emergency management director. Ambulance calls and emergency-room visits for heat exhaustion have risen in Austin and other cities, including Tulsa, Okla., where electricity was out for tens of thousands of people for several days last week after heavy storms that were followed by triple-digit heat. The high temperatures have already proven fatal for some. A teenage boy from Florida and his stepfather, who were hiking in Big Bend National Park in southern Texas on Friday, died as temperatures there rose to 119 degrees Fahrenheit — the second-highest mark ever recorded in the state.

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Persons: ”, Kevin Snipes Locations: Texas, Oklahoma, Gulf, Florida, Austin , Texas, Austin, Tulsa, Okla, Big Bend