CHICAGO (AP) — Natural disasters can be dramatic — violent hurricanes, stunning tornadoes — but the heat is deadlier.
Chicago found out the hard way in 1995.
In July, a week-long heat wave that reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Celsius) killed more than 700 people. Most of the deaths occurred in poor, predominantly black neighborhoods, where many elderly or isolated people suffered without adequate ventilation or air conditioning. Power outages from an overwhelmed network made the situation worse.
Initially slow to respond, Chicago has since developed heat emergency response plans that include a massive push to alert the public and then connect the most vulnerable to the help they may need. Other cities like Los Angeles, Miami and Phoenix now have “heat chiefs” to coordinate planning and response to dangerous heat. Around the world, cities and countries have adopted similar measures.
But experts warn that these measures may not be enough in a world that constantly sees heat records exploding and with persistent inequalities in who is most vulnerable.
“I don’t know of a single city that’s really prepared for the worst-case scenario that some climate scientists fear,” said Eric Klinenberg, a New York University social science professor who wrote a book about Chicago’s heat wave. .
Heat preparedness has generally improved over the years as forecasts have become more accurate and meteorologists, journalists and government officials have focused on broadcasting the danger ahead. Chicago, for example, expanded its text and email emergency notification system and identified its most vulnerable residents for outreach.
But what works in one city may not be as effective in another. That’s because everyone has their own unique architecture, transportation, layout and inequalities, said Bharat Venkat, an associate professor at UCLA who leads the university’s Heat Lab, aimed at tackling what he calls “thermal inequality”.
Venkat believes cities should tackle inequality by investing in labor rights, sustainability and more. It may seem expensive – who pays, for example, when a city tries to improve conditions for workers in crunchy food trucks? — but Venkat thinks doing nothing will ultimately cost more.
“The status quo is actually very costly,” he said. “We just don’t do the math.”
France launched a heat alert system after a prolonged heat wave in 2003 reportedly caused 15,000 deaths, many of them elderly people in city apartments and houses without air conditioning. The system includes public announcements urging people to hydrate. Germany last month launched a new campaign against heatwave deaths which it says is inspired by the French experience.
In India, a powerful heat wave in 2010 with temperatures above 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) killed more than 1,300 people in the city of Ahmedabad. City officials now have a heat action plan to improve awareness among locals and healthcare workers. Another very simple initiative: Paint the roofs white to reflect the blazing sun.
Ladd Keith, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, cited Baltimore’s Code Red Extreme Heat alerts as an example of a well-designed alert system. The alerts go off when forecasts call for a heat index of 105 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, and set in motion things like more social services in communities most vulnerable to heat risk.
He praised heat workers in cities like Los Angeles, Miami and Phoenix, but said there were “still over 19,000 cities and towns without them”.
Inkyu Han, an environmental health scientist at Temple University in Philadelphia, noted that cities are still struggling to get aids such as cooling centers and subsidized air conditioning in poorer neighborhoods. He said more could also be done with simple and sustainable solutions such as improving tree canopy.
“In particular, low-income neighborhoods and communities of color in Philadelphia often lack street trees and green space,” Han said.
In Providence, Rhode Island, the Atlantic Ocean generally moderates temperatures, but the area can still experience heat waves. Emergency physician Kate Moretti said hospitals across the city are seeing more patients when the heat hits – with an increase in illnesses that may not be obviously heat-related, such as heart attacks, kidney failure and strokes. mental health problems.
“We definitely notice that it puts a strain on the system,” Moretti said. Older people, people who work outside, people with disabilities and the homeless make up a large portion of those admissions, she said.
Miami – considered ground zero for the threat of climate change due to its vulnerability to sea level rise, flooding, hurricanes and extreme heat – appointed its heat manager two years ago. years to develop strategies to protect people from the heat.
Robin Bachin, associate professor of civic and community engagement at the University of Miami, noted that the federal government has laws to protect people in cold climates from turning off their heating in unsafe conditions, but did not not something similar for cooling.
“For people living in non-state subsidized apartments, landlords are not required to provide air conditioning,” Bachin said. “It’s extremely dangerous, especially for our local low-income population, not to mention homeless people or outdoor workers.”
Klinenberg said the United States has so far been lucky with the duration of most heat waves, but power grids vulnerable to high demand in some areas, as well as lingering social inequalities, could lead to serious problems in the decades to come.
That’s partly because the underlying social issues that make heat spells so deadly are only getting worse, Klinenberg said. Chicago’s 1995 deaths were clustered not only in poor, segregated neighborhoods, but also specifically in what he calls “impoverished” neighborhoods, places where it’s harder for people to congregate and where ties social have eroded. Empty lots, abandoned restaurants and poorly maintained parks mean people are less likely to check on each other.
Noboru Nakamura, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Chicago who specializes in extreme weather events, said he thinks Chicago has made a lot of smart changes by implementing heat contingency plans, routine wellness checks and cooling centers.
But he, too, cited inequality as a difficult challenge.
“A systemic problem of resource inequality is something you can’t really get rid of overnight. And we still have the same problem that we had then today,” Nakamura said. “So that aspect is still a big, big, big, big unresolved issue.”
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O’Malley reported from Philadelphia.
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Follow Melina Walling on Twitter @MelinaWalling.
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