070119 504
High temperatures continue in Siouxland, up in the nineties today and down to the 80s by tomorrow. There is a heat advisory in effect until 9:00 p.m. tonight.
The high heat is causing the concrete to buckle on some stretches of northwest Iowa roads.
Troy Clouse, with the Iowa Department of Transportation, says he and his crews responded to five reports of pavement blowouts during the weekend in Plymouth, Sioux, and Woodbury counties. Clouse told the Sioux City Journal they are making temporary repairs.
One man who has had first-hand experience with the heat in the last few days in Tommy Zurhellen. Zurhellen is a veteran and associate professor of creative writing at Marist College who is walking across the country to raise money and create awareness about homeless veterans. Zurhellen stopped in Sioux City today.
"We’re walking 22 miles per day to recognize the number of veteran suicides each day, and we also have a fundraising goal of 40, 387 dollars which is the average number of homeless veterans every night in America."
Zurhellen’s fundraising is called Vet Zero, as he hopes to get the number of homeless vets in America down to zero. His journey began in Portland, Oregan on April 15th. Zurhellen will continue along HWY 20 tomorrow on his way home to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he hopes to back to teach his classes in late August.
