Northwest heat wave: Volunteers get water to the vulnerable
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
Posted:
Updated:
Gillian Flaccus
December Snedecor, a homeless woman who lives in a tent in Portland, Ore., helps set up snacks at a cooling center established to help vulnerable residents ride out the second dangerous heat wave to grip the Pacific Northwest this summer on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Snedecor, 46, spent two nights at the same cooling center in June when temperatures in the city soared to 116 degrees Fahrenheit and she plans to spend the night there again this week as temperatures are forecast to hit 100 F or higher for three consecutive days.
Nathan Howard
Chad Messenger collects cooling supplies including bottled water donated by the Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare's street outreach team on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore.
Gillian Flaccus
Volunteers and Multnomah County employees unload cases of water to supply a 24-hour cooling center set up in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, as a dangerous heat wave grips the Pacific Northwest.
Tommy Martino
FILE - In this June 30, 2021 file photo Missoulians cool off in the Bitterroot River as temperatures crested 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Missoula, Mont. The Pacific Northwest is bracing for another major, multi-day heat wave in mid-August 2021 just a month after temperatures soared as high as 116 F in a record-shattering heat event that killed scores of the most vulnerable across the region.
Dean Rutz
FILE - In this June 28, 2021 file photo the Kangaroo and Kiwi restaurant in the old Carnegie Library on Market Street NW uses misters to keep outdoor patrons cool on the hottest day in Seattle history. The Pacific Northwest is bracing for another major, multi-day heat wave in mid-August 2021 just a month after temperatures soared as high as 116 F in a record-shattering heat event that killed scores of the most vulnerable across the region.
Ted S. Warren
FILE - In this June 28, 2021 file photo a display at an Olympia Federal Savings branch shows a temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit, in the early evening in Olympia, Wash. The Pacific Northwest is bracing for another major, multi-day heat wave in mid-August 2021 just a month after temperatures soared as high as 116 F in a record-shattering heat event that killed scores of the most vulnerable across the region.
Nathan Howard
FILE - In this July 1, 2021 file photo, farmworkers till soil as a heat wave bakes the Pacific Northwest in record-high temperatures near St. Paul, Ore. The Pacific Northwest is bracing for another major, multi-day heat wave in mid-August 2021 just a month after temperatures soared as high as 116 F in a record-shattering heat event that killed scores of the most vulnerable across the region.
A major heat wave is again forecast for the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures expected to rise as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Oregon.
Nathan Howard
Chris Cowan with Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare's street outreach team loads water and other cooling supplies before visiting homeless camps on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore.
Nathan Howard
Darlene McApline, an administrative coordinator with Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare's street outreach team, dumps a bottle of water on her head to cool off while loading supplies on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore.
Nathan Howard
A woman living along the Columbia River who declined to be named, drinks a bottle of water delivered by Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare's street outreach team on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore.
Gillian Flaccus
December Snedecor, a homeless woman who lives in a tent in Portland, Ore., helps set up snacks at a cooling center established to help vulnerable residents ride out the second dangerous heat wave to grip the Pacific Northwest this summer on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Snedecor, 46, spent two nights at the same cooling center in June when temperatures in the city soared to 116 degrees Fahrenheit and she plans to spend the night there again this week as temperatures are forecast to hit 100 F or higher for three consecutive days.
Nathan Howard
Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare's street outreach team loads water and other cooling supplies before visiting homeless camps on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore.
Nathan Howard
Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare's street outreach team loads water and other cooling supplies before visiting homeless camps on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore.
Ted S. Warren
A fan at T-Mobile Park adjusts a cloth on his head during a sunny day baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Seattle. The usually temperate Pacific Northwest region entered the peak days of a scorching heat wave Thursday.
Ted S. Warren
A fan at T-Mobile Park keeps cool with a portable fan during a sunny day baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Seattle. The usually temperate Pacific Northwest region entered the peak days of a scorching heat wave Thursday.
Volunteers handed out water to homeless people in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday as the Pacific Northwest entered the peak days of a scorching heat wave in the usually temperate region.
Nathan Howard
Katherine Morgan wipes sweat from her forehead while walking to work in high temperatures on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore. People have headed to cooling centers as the Pacific Northwest began sweltering under another major, multiday heat wave.
Nathan Howard
Katherine Morgan drinks water in front of a box fan while trying to stay cool in her downtown apartment without air conditioning on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore. People have headed to cooling centers as the Pacific Northwest began sweltering under another major, multiday heat wave.
Nathan Howard
A homeless man reads an informational handout about heat stroke provided by the Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare's street outreach team on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore. People have headed to cooling centers as the Pacific Northwest began sweltering under another major, multiday heat wave.
Nathan Howard
Scott Zalitis carries freezer pops and water provided by Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare's street outreach team on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore. People have headed to cooling centers as the Pacific Northwest began sweltering under another major, multiday heat wave.
Nathan Howard
Vivek Shandas, a professor of climate adaptation at Portland State University, takes a temperature reading of almost 106 degrees in downtown Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore. People have headed to cooling centers as the Pacific Northwest began sweltering under another major, multiday heat wave.
Nathan Howard
Katherine Morgan sits in front of a box fan while trying to stay cool in her downtown apartment without air conditioning on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore. People have headed to cooling centers as the Pacific Northwest began sweltering under another major, multiday heat wave.
Nathan Howard
Vivek Shandas, a professor of climate adaptation at Portland State University, takes a temperature reading of almost 106 degrees in downtown Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Portland, Ore. People have headed to cooling centers as the Pacific Northwest began sweltering under another major, multiday heat wave.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Volunteers scrambled to hand out water, portable fans, popsicles and information about cooling shelters Thursday to homeless people living in isolated encampments on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, as the Pacific Northwest sweated through a heat wave gripping the normally temperate region.
Authorities trying to provide relief to the vulnerable, including low-income older people and those living outdoors, are mindful of a record-shattering heat wave in late June that killed hundreds in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia when the thermometer went as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C).
In Portland, temperatures reached 102 F (39 C) by late afternoon, and more heat was expected Friday. It was hotter than Phoenix, where the high in the desert city was a below-normal 100 F (38 C). In Seattle, highs were in the 90s in a region where many don’t have air conditioning. In Bellingham, Washington, on Thursday the high hit 100 F (38 C) for the first time on record.
Scorching weather also hit other parts of the U.S. this week. The National Weather Service said heat advisories and warnings are in effect from the Midwest to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic through at least Friday. And in Michigan, heavy rains brought flooding, leaving nearly 1 million homes and businesses without power at one point Thursday in the hot weather.
In Portland, a nonprofit group that serves the homeless and those with mental illness used three large vans to transport water and other cooling items to homeless encampments along the Columbia River on the eastern outskirts of the city.
The effort was important because people experiencing homelessness are often reluctant to go to cooling centers, said Kim James, director of homeless and housing support for Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare.
Scott Zalitis, who was shirtless in the heat, gorged himself on lime-green popsicles handed out by the group and told volunteers that the temperature at his campsite reached 105 F (41 C) the day before. A huge cooler full of food spoiled when all the ice melted and he couldn’t find any more to buy.
“It’s miserable. I can’t handle the heat no matter what. So, I mean, it’s hard to stand. Even in the shade it’s too hot,” said Zalitis, who became homeless last year when the apartment where he subleased a room burned down in an electrical fire. “You want to stay somewhere that’s cool, as cool as possible.”
The encampment, where rusted-out cars and broken-down RVs mixed with tents and piles of garbage, was in sharp contrast to downtown Portland, where sweaty pedestrians cooled off by running through a large public fountain in a riverfront park.
Luna Abadia, 17, was out training with her cross country team from Lincoln High School in the morning when the group stopped for a few minutes at the fountain. The runners normally train at 4 p.m., but in recent weeks, they have have had to shift it to 8 a.m. — and it’s still oppressively hot, she said.
“It was very hot, lots of sweat. That’s something we’ve noticed in the past week or so,” Abadia said.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has declared a state of emergency and activated an emergency operations center, citing the potential for disruptions to the power grid and transportation. City and county governments have opened cooling centers, extended public library hours and waived bus fare for those headed to cooling centers. A 24-hour statewide help line will direct callers to the nearest cooling shelter and offer safety tips.
The back-to-back heat waves, coupled with a summer that’s been exceptionally warm and dry overall, are pummeling a region where summer highs usually drift into the 70s or 80s. Intense heat waves and a historic drought in the American West reflect climate change that is making weather more extreme.
“For the heat wave, at this level, it is new territory,” said Dan Douthit, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications. “We’re known for the potential for earthquakes, we have fires, floods — but it seems like heat waves are becoming a very serious emergency.”
Abadia said changes brought on by climate change that she has noticed in her life prompted her to start a youth-run organization to get more young people involved in the issue.
“Climate change is everything I’ve been thinking about for the past weeks,“ she said. “This heat wave and the wildfires we faced here a year ago — and even now around the world — have really been a new reminder to what we’re facing and, kind of, the immediate action that needs to be taken.”
