SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
In much of the United States, including here in Washington, D.C., temperatures have hovered near 100 with heat indexes as high as 115 degrees. The National Weather Service has used words like excessive heat and oppressive humidity warning everyone to keep cool. Reporter Kavitha Cardoza visited some folks trying to do just that at some swimming pools in Southeast D.C. and sent us this audio postcard.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: My favorite sound is water splashing (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Well, I walked to the corner store this morning at 8:00. I'm like, it's hotter than Satan's toenails, for real (laughter). It's hotter than Satan's toenails.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: It's so hot you can pretty much fry a (ph) egg on the sidewalk. Best place to be is at a swimming pool.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: I brought my children, my grandchildren, my nieces and my nephews. It's about 10 of us.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: It's hot, and the pool is cold.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Take cool showers. Drink plenty of fluids, and just stay out the heat.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Swimming was a lot better, a lot funner (ph). There's more people out here than can fit in my house anyways, so I'd rather be out here.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Oh, I love these ice (unintelligible). When I'm at home, I suck on them all day long.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: I only get one popsicle a day, but I wish I could have five a day.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: I'll definitely have a beer or two beers (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: It's as hot as what I imagine H-E-double-hockey-sticks would be (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: I wish I could go nude.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: Now, I don't have air conditioning at my house, so it's really - it's crippling heat. But we keep the house real dark and wear light clothes. I tell the kids sit still, lay around because that's - my mother never did - we didn't have air conditioning in the '60s (laughter). So you have to go back to the old ways.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #3: Mommy, can we just get two more minutes, please?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: Ain't no two more minutes. That's it.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #3: I want to stay at the pool.
MCCAMMON: Those were the voices of Quantina Edwards, Dominick Hill, Kioka and Jahari Caldwell, Melvina Rawlings, Ronald Pee, Daniella Lott, London, Paris, and Roshanda (ph) Richards, Bonnie Handon and Octavia Ferguson. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.