Heat Torments Houston's Poor

They have been lining up before daylight by the hundreds outside a local charity. Hoping for help. But after weeks of blistering weather, the heat and hard luck have finally gotten the best of Houston's poor, CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.

Steep electricity bills are just one of the heat-related probelms afflicting the needy.

"I don't have enough income and I can't pay the $739 bill and they're cutting my lights off today at four," said a distraught Katja VanScoy. "I have three disabled babies at home. I have a breathing machine."

Robert Phillips runs the charity that's passed out $3 million in federal relief. Tonight, the money is gone but the need is not.

"People's organs are cooking in their bodies throughout the day if they don't have air conditioning," Phillips said.

About $1 million of the money from Washington went to buy air conditioners, 2,200 in all. The problem is, in Houston, they need 30,000.

One Houston woman got her air conditioner, the first ever for her family.

"I never did think I was gonna get me one," she said.

Now, with no sign that Washington will send more money, she is not only one of the lucky ones, she may be one of the last.

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