And click your heels together three times while doing so...

"There is no Global Warming... It is all a Liberal Myth." and "George Bush is the Greatest President of all time!"

Rueters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Parts of eastern United States prepared on Tuesday for a potentially deadly heatwave with the mercury forecast to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) but power grid operators assured demand could be met.

The heatwave is moving across the country from California, which has just suffered through more than two consecutive weeks of triple-digit temperatures that killed at least 126 people and caused power failures.

Meteorologists also forecast 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Detroit, St. Louis and Chicago on Tuesday and temperatures that would top 100 degrees in Philadelphia and Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The National Weather Service, or NWS, issued excessive heat warnings and said the heat index -- how hot it actually feels when the humidity is combined with the air temperature -- was due to hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 C) in New York on Wednesday.

"If people do not take precautions we could be looking at a significant number of fatalities," said NWS Warning Coordinator Meteorologist Gary Conte, adding that New York City had not suffered such a string of hot temperatures since July 1999.

"The forecasted temperatures and heat indices (in 1999) were pretty close to what we're looking at now. The impact from that event resulted in 43 deaths in New York City and New Jersey with rolling blackouts, buckled roads and so forth."