Sounds like they got too dry and died. The good news is that there are still green leaves and green culms, so the plant will live.

I would immediately water heavily, then keep watered as usual. After a few days/week, you will be able to see which parts are dead and will not be able to be revived.

Brown culms usually indicate they are dead and can no longer be revived. After a week or so, you can trim off the dead portions of the culms, and the plant will recover completely, but it may be next year since the growing season is almost over.

Which Buddha Belly do you have and how large are the plants?

Good Luck

Kt

Thank you so much for the advice. Those plants are not cheap. I have about 7 clumps around the property and while some are slow, they are doing well. They love the sun here and the 4 that I have on the south side of the building are tall and large, but they haven't gotten to that large large state yet as they are all around 1-2 years old, but they grew taller than me over the summer and looked beautiful. I was a bit shocked when I came home and saw the damage and heard about the heatwave here. It has been a brutal summer in Tucson so I have watered them about every day to every 2-3 days depending on the temps. It appears they still need my help. Again thanks for your advice