Heat wave lets up a little on second day

The heat wave scorching Long Island wasn't quite as punishing on Day Two.

Temperatures didn't hit triple digits again Saturday, but it was still sizzling -- turning outside work into a sweat-drenched ordeal and frustrating the man in the Carnival Ice Cream truck.

"It's just too hot," said Alper Curvy, lamenting the dearth of customers at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. "There are no kids."

While some sought refuge in pools and the surf, others opted for the certain comfort of air-conditioning.

"We definitely have more people come in here on days like this," said Ashley Gamba, 16, a sales associate at Breezin Up, an East Hampton gift shop. "People shop instead of going to the beach because it's so hot out."

The high of 95 degrees recorded Saturday in Islip tied the daily mark set in 1991, the National Weather Service said, but fell short of Friday's record-busting 100 degrees. The good news: Relief is on the way. Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina said a cold front will move in Sunday, dropping temperatures to the upper 80s or low 90s. Monday will be even cooler.

"Compared to the last couple of days, it's going to feel more comfortable," Pollina said.

With many businesses closed Saturday, the Long Island Power Authority reported a drop in power consumption, peaking at 5,269 megawatts, compared with Friday's 5,915.

LIPA crews worked overtime to respond to scattered outages, said LIPA spokeswoman Vanessa Baird-Streeter. There were 7,251 customers without service last night, down from 11,000 the previous day.

The Greenlawn Water District, however, sent out an advisory asking people to "curtail all unnecessary water usage over the next several days, particularly lawn irrigation," to ensure adequate reserves for fire protection.

Area hospitals reported some heat-related illnesses, but not an unusual number. One patient at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn was admitted for heat stroke, said hospital spokeswoman Liz Burke.

In Amagansett, the heat forced organizers of the Wounded Warriors Project to cut short a fundraising bicycle ride from 60 to 30 miles.

Some couldn't escape the sun. Samantha Ward, 21, a traffic control officer, had to spend the day directing endless streams of cars in East Hampton.

"By the end of the day, you're ready to go to bed," she said. "The sun drains you."

Outside the Nassau Coliseum, Johnny Roy, 20, and four friends were in bathing suits and sweaters after making the hourlong trek from Miller Place to catch the Vans Warped Tour rock concert.

"It's Warped Tour, dude," Roy said. "You gotta expect it to be hot."

With Robert Brodsky, Ali Eaves, Keith Herbert, Aisha Al-Muslim and Jeremy Schneider