National Guard Ordered to Aid Evacuation Effort

Gov. Matt Blunt sent in the National Guard to evacuate people from their sweltering homes after storms knocked out power to more than half a million St. Louis-area households and businesses in the middle of a deadly heat wave.

With forecasters expecting another day of 100-degree heat, utility crews raced to restore electricity. The governor declared a state of emergency, granting the mayor’s request to send in nearly 300 troops to take people to air-conditioned public buildings and to clear debris from the storms that tore through the city a day earlier.