Heat blamed in the deaths of 16

Southern California's heat wave is suspected in the deaths of at least 16 people, officials said Monday as utilities struggled to fix power transformers overloaded by eight days of extreme weather that is expected to finally cool today.

The deaths included an elderly couple in Valley Village who had told neighbors they were trying to keep their air conditioner off to save money, a 45-year-old woman separated from two friends after their car crashed in the desert and a Pasadena woman in her 80s whose body was discovered in her apartment, where the temperature was 115 degrees.

Hundreds of utility crews spent Monday trying to restore power to about 64,000 households, some of which have been without electricity for three days.

"We felt like we were being tortured," said Matthew Lorenzen, 28, whose Los Feliz home lost power several times Saturday, Sunday and Monday. "It was just horrible -- lots of still, hot nights."

The National Weather Service said those nights will be cooling, at least a little, beginning today as the heat wave ebbs.

Temperatures, which reached the upper 90s on Tuesday in places like Woodland Hills and Van Nuys, were expected to drop 5 to 10 degrees today with the arrival of a low-pressure front, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist for the National Weather Service. Temperatures will continue to fall gradually through the rest of the week.

Twelve of the deaths reported occurred across a wide section of Los Angeles County, including the San Fernando Valley, the Fairfax district and downtown L.A. Three victims were found in San Bernardino County and one in Riverside County.

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