DENVER, July 15 (UPI) -- Nine straight days of thunderstorms in the Denver area have produced thousands of reports of hail damage, swamped cars and downed trees, authorities said.
More storms were expected Friday, The Denver Post reported.
A 16-year-old boy was seriously hurt Thursday night when he fell into Sand Creek in Aurora and was swept more than 100 yards downstream, said fire Capt. Allen Robnett. He was rescued, given CPR and rushed to Children's Hospital Colorado.
The Fourmile Canyon area west of Boulder, stripped of vegetation by a wildfire last fall, was evacuated Wednesday and Thursday after flooding and landslides.
A 15-minute hail storm Wednesday at Denver International Airport damaged at least 40 planes and many parked cars, and forced the cancellation of more than 150 flights, officials said. Some 1,000 passengers making connections were stranded until Thursday morning.
State Farm insurance projected 6,500 claims for auto damage and 4,000 for home damage from hail along the Interstate 25 corridor from Fountain to Fort Collins.
Accuweather Friday said an extreme heat wave gripping most of the United States would soon hit the East Coast.
Temperatures exceeding 100 degrees are expected to spread from Dallas, Oklahoma City and Wichita, Kan., to Kansas City, Mo., St. Louis and Des Moines, Iowa.
"It may well get lethal on the Plains and in the Midwest this weekend into next week," meteorologist Joe Lundberg said.
