One thing I did in an apartment in MN with no ac during triple digits is make my own swamp cooler. I actually still use it (my current apartment has an AC in one room, no central air, only heating.
It involves taking a fan and coiling copper tubing in front of it. Then using a water pump (I took it from aquarium parts from free section on craigslist), pump chilled water from a water cooler through the copper piping.
Its not amazing, and not terribly efficient (since your making ice with a freezer), but it made the apartment about 5 degrees cooler and felt less humid... don't know why, there was a good deal of condensation on the tubing. ((The pics do not have all the frozen water bottles I tend to throw in there to keep the water cool)).