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Imagine record-breaking heat without air conditioning

September 01, 2011|By Melody Pettit | KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

(WICHITA, Kan.) — Wichita has seen more 100 degree days than any other year on record...51 and counting.

A 97-year-old woman was here when the first record was set.

While Thursday eclipsed 1936 in Wichita for triple-digit days, it's a very different time from 75 years ago.

Just ask Teresa Martinez, she was 22-years old that summer and endured the extreme heat without air conditioning.

Headlines from the Wichita Eagle that summer show just how hot it was. The heat also blamed for nine deaths that year in Kansas.

Martinez says her family tried many tricks to stay cool that year.

"We tried to keep cool by staying in the basement most of the time and only coming up to cook dinner," Martinez said.

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Martinez says she is content to wait out this year's heat spell in her air conditioned apartment.

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