Deadly heat

LESTER HOLT, anchor: We turn now to the weather and the heat wave that seems like it will never end. Temperatures reach well above 100 degrees today from Oklahoma City to Dallas to Shreveport and Valdosta . And a huge part of the central and southern US has been coping with 100 degree temperatures for the past 24 days straight. Life has to go on, but it's not easy, especially for the young and elderly. Here's NBC's Janet Shamlian .

JANET SHAMLIAN reporting: High school football up against a punishing opponent, unrelenting triple-digit heat.

Mr. STEVE GLEAVES (St. John's School Football Coach): That's why we do it in practice like this.

SHAMLIAN: At St. John's School in Houston they're on defense.

Mr. GLEAVES: When they're tired, you're not going to get anything out of them anyway. So there's -- it's time to get them out, let them get a sip of water, get somebody else in there and work the drill.

SHAMLIAN: In Georgia , a solemn memorial for a football player who died after collapsing at practice. Doctors say 16-year-old Forest Jones was a victim of heat stroke .

Unidentified Woman: We're just walking around, checking on the seniors to make sure they're all right.

SHAMLIAN: In Baltimore , volunteers are checking in on the elderly, with the heat wave now in its second month.

JIM CANTORE reporting: This is just unprecedented. According to NOAA , we set nearly 9,000 heat related records in the month of July, including several all-time records for any month.

SHAMLIAN: In Dallas , an elderly woman died after her air conditioning unit was stolen. Her son says he found her unconscious in her stifling home. Dallas police say reports of similar thefts are coming in now every day and that thieves are just ripping these units right out of people's windows. There was rain, but it came in the form of unwanted flash flooding in Charlotte , where children had to be rescued from an apartment and drivers from their trapped cars. One person was killed. Cell phone video shows rain water flooding into a hotel lobby near the airport. Back in the frying pan, cooling centers have opened. The problem is most close at sundown, when the temperature is often still in triple digits. Janet Shamlian , NBC News, Houston.