Hot weather impacts those trying to stay cool
FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- The extreme heat from the last few days is impacting both young and old.
People without air conditioning have been forced to sweat it out this summer in unbearable conditions.
Miserable! That's how Angel Morris described what it's like to live with no A/C during the summer heat.
"It makes me feel worse that I have my baby, and he has to deal with the heat," Morris said.
Morris said its cooler outside than inside her Fayetteville home. She only has a box fan in the home she and her husband rent.
"I can't even cook," she said. "I mean when I turn the oven on to go cook, it just gets worse -- even at night."
For a few hours Tuesday, the sign at Festival Park read 101 degrees. However, you did not have to tell Elfie Westerfield how hot it was. She said her home started heating up like an oven when her air conditioning unit stopped working.
"I come inside, and say, 'It's hot in here.' I look at the thermostat and it was 83," said Westerfield. "I knew something was wrong."
An air conditioning repair technician got her unit working again Tuesday afternoon.
Delon Collins, with Day and Night Heating and Air Conditioning, said the high heat can be just as tough on A/C repairmen as it is on the units they fix.
"The biggest problem," Collins said, "is when you got a split system and you got to get up in the attic. It gets up to 130 to 140 degrees in that attic, and it really drains you."
Collins said he worked till 2 a.m. Tuesday answering service calls, and he expected he would have another long day and night.
For others like Fayetteville Parking Enforcement Officer Jonathan Wigfall, who have to work outside, there is not much they can do but grin and bear it.
"When it's slow, we try and go into a shaded area or duck into a restaurant to get a little drink," said Wigfall.
Wigfall has been a parking officer for the past three years and had another job that was also outside work. So he said he feels like he is used to the high heat.
For Morris, however, there is no getting used to the heat she and her baby have to live with. They stay outside as much as they can.
"I try and get his play pen out and try to keep the bugs off him," she said. "At least you have a breeze."
Morris said her landlord told her he doesn't have the money to put a central air conditioning system, or a window unit in the rental home. She and her husband can't afford to move, so they hope and pray for cooler weather.
