117+ (47 C?) is a problem if you're young or old enough that your system can't adjust to it, or if you have severe health problems. I dunno that anybody'll flat-out die, but heatstroke and dehydration, either of which can be incapacitating, are definitely possible.

I've had to deal with that sort of heat index routinely as a college student in Texas and in a pickup truck without air conditioning in South Carolina, and it war'n't much fun. But I *did* have air circulation (at highway speeds) -- the lack of which could definitely add to the misery.

PaxDigita, when trains or the Underground service as a whole break down, the trains can be stuck in tunnels for a couple of hours at a time. That happens regularly enough for it not to be considered unusual by the regular commuter. If it happens when the temperature in the tunnels is in the 110+ range, with no ventilation, it'll be serious.

I'm not disagreeing with you, ej (a nickname I now mentally pronounce as if it rhymed with "siege"). Although it's possible to acclimate oneself to a degree, the "no ventilation" part, in a closed rail car full of people for 2+ hours, is going to be the critical element. Wow... commuting as Russian roulette.

Even in my room in Austin, I could open a window and/or run a fan -- or just rig a hammock outside, which I did on a few nights when it didn't get below the 80s. (You start to look upon sweat as a fashion accessory or something.) And the city buses had air conditioning (feeble though it seemed at times).

They should hang saline drips from the handrails of every car.

I nearly died (maybe) in my own apartment one summer when we had a hellish heat wave and no A.C., so - yeah, I think people could die.

I had some minor cold or flu and the incredible heat just completely meshed with that weakness, it seems - like a parasite, or something. I had a high, high temperature, but couldn't sweat, and became completely delirious, though I was trying to move through the honeythick dream to save myself by getting in the bathtub with "cold" water (it was from the tap, and anything but cold, but was absolutely agonizing to me, in my fevered conditioned). It was basically the only time in my life that I thought "I could really die now. I might really die now."

Since then I've been terrified to be without an air conditioner... as pansy as that may sound.

matildaben, an IV drip would help with really bad dehydration (sometimes oral replenishment isn't fast enough, or pt's nauseated), but it won't do sh*t with heatstroke/heat exhaustion cases. They medevac guys for that, pack 'em in ice, the whole bit. You're dealing with hyperthermia and need to lower the body's core temp a/w/a need to replace lost fluids & rebalance electrolytes -- pt could be in shock, too.

Your bod normally cools itself through sweat evaporation, but sometimes that's not efficient enough, and if a fever is raising your core temp already and you're not able to sweating enough in a really hot environment, that's deep sh*t. Yeah, taz, you might've been in real trouble if you hadn't taken appropriate action. Nice work.

taz, I've watched myself and other healthy, active people stroke out like that -- I learned down South to work out either really early or really late so sun wouldn't beat on me so badly. Got overheated mowing the lawn on a 97-degree day to the point where I was barfing, addled, really weak and uncoordinated. Made Mrs. Pax go buy 25 lbs of ice and pour it on me in the tub, too. She thought I was nuts, but I kept telling her "trust me, trust me." She brought me Gatorade and I kept sipping. I didn't let myself out of the tub until the chill started getting noticeable, and by then I finally needed to pee a little, too. I got right in bed and slept for hours.

What taz said about "cold" (ambient tap temperature) water in a tub is about the best you can do absent icing down -- even a prolonged cold *shower* is better than just lying in the heat.

In Austin (and trips over to Houston) I began to appreciate a/c not as "climate control" but, for a lot of people, as taz also notes, it's life support.

(Old exercise-related joke I use to describe speedmarching: When I see long-dead relatives smiling and beckoning, it's time to back it down a notch.)

ej -- so...now that I understand better that the Tube traps people for hours in that environment -- that's worse than being "down in the hole" in a ship's engineering spaces, where (young, fit, trained to be aware of hazards) guys monitor themselves and each other for heat symptoms, drink water like it's going out of style, and can pi$$ in the bilges on watch vice waiting for a relief so they can climb all the way up to the head.

God, this makes my little claustrophobic head want to scream.

Last year this happened.

Out of curiosity, why aren't there "escape hatches" where they can evacuate people during subway calamities? (And yes, I consider being stuck underground for 4 hours a calamity!) From the article ej linked, it seems like they were having people walk between the train and the wall to the platform - why aren't there emergency exits along the tunnel?

muddgirl, some lines were built more than a century ago. You can't go around digging up random bits of London to add escape hatches. Also, the deep tunnels are 60ft below ground, and there's no way you can get a trainload of worried exhausted people to climb 60ft up a manhole ladder. It's all pretty far from ideal.

From the li'l bit I know about subways, if the cars aren't moving and you have to get out, it's a nontrivial exercise to get out of the car, walk down a very narrow ledge in total or near-total darkness, maybe for up to a mile or two. For obvious safety reasons it's done only in flat-out emergencies. It's pretty grim and sketchy walking around in that milieu; I'm a brave, in-shape hairy-@$$ed MF and I wouldn't be eager to try it.

And that's if you're ambulatory. If you're aged and/or infirm, and you're already suffering symptoms from heat and/or dehydration, rescue personnel might have to come down there and locate you. That could take additional time during which you know the cavalry's coming, but you're surely not feeling healthier meanwhile. Gawd.

Hey, ej -- do cell phones work down in the tubes when you're stuck like that? Could you call for help if you had to?

Oh, and ... specklet, don't ever set foot aboard a submarine, 'k?

Cellphones don't work underground, although there are apparently plans to introduce some kind of system so that they do. Drivers have a radio, but they'd have no way of knowing if someone further down the train was taken ill.

This morning I had to run for the train at my station. As I got on, the driver said, over the intercom, to the whole train, "there's no need to run, Jan, I'll wait for you". It was my mate Trevor, who, one day, let me ride in the cab with him and 'drive' the train.

Health & Safety disclaimer: Underground trains are all completely automatic and run by computer. All the driver does is operate the doors and ensure it's safe to move off. I opened and closed the doors three times and nobody got stuck in them.