Page 2 - aruba-today-20220621

A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 21 June 2022
Hundreds of homeless die in extreme heat

Continued from Front lation 8.4 million, was the
first South Asian city to de-
Around the country, heat sign a heat action plan in
contributes to some 1,500 2013.
deaths annually, and ad- Through its warning system,
vocates estimate about nongovernmental groups
half of those people are reach out to vulnerable
homeless. people and send text mes-
Temperatures are rising sages to mobile phones.
nearly everywhere be- Water tankers are dis-
cause of global warm- patched to slums, while bus
ing, combining with brutal stops, temples and libraries
drought in some places become shelters for peo-
to create more intense, ple to escape the blistering
frequent and longer heat rays.
waves. The past few sum- Still, the deaths pile up.
mers have been some of Kimberly Rae Haws, a
the hottest on record. 62-year-old homeless wom-
Just in the county that in- an, was severely burned
cludes Phoenix, at least in October 2020 while
130 homeless people were sprawled for an unknown
among the 339 individuals amount of time on a siz-
who died from heat-associ- zling Phoenix blacktop. The
ated causes in 2021. cause of her subsequent
"If 130 homeless people death was never investi-
were dying in any other gated.
way it would be considered Jim Baker, who oversees that dining room for the St. Vincent de Paul charity, sits in the dining room A young man nicknamed
a mass casualty event," after dinner Wednesday, April 27, 2022, in Phoenix. Twitch died from heat ex-
said Kristie L. Ebi, a profes- Associated Press posure as he sat on a curb
sor of global health at the near a Phoenix soup kitch-
University of Washington. 24-hour cooling centers due to discrimination and extreme weather now seen en in the hours before it
It's a problem that stretches for the first time. Volunteer insufficient housing. The around the world, more opened one weekend in
across the United States, teams fanned out with wa- high in Jacobabad, Paki- solutions are needed to 2018.
and now, with rising glo- ter and popsicles to home- stan near the border with protect the vulnerable, es- "He was supposed to move
bal temperatures, heat is less encampments on Port- India hit 122 degrees (50 pecially homeless people into permanent housing
no longer a danger just in land's outskirts. Celsius) in May. who are about 200 times the next Monday," said Jim
places like Phoenix. A quick scientific analysis Dr. Dileep Mavalankar, more likely than sheltered Baker, who oversees that
This summer will likely bring concluded last year's Pa- who heads the Indian Insti- individuals to die from heat- dining room for the St. Vin-
above-normal tempera- cific Northwest heat wave tute of Public Health in the associated causes. cent de Paul charity. "His
tures over most land areas was virtually impossible western Indian city Gan- "As temperatures continue mother was devastated."
worldwide, according to a without human-caused cli- dhinagar, said because of to rise across the U.S. and Many such deaths are
seasonal map that volun- mate change adding sev- poor reporting it's unknown the world, cities like Seat- never confirmed as heat
teer climatologists created eral degrees and toppling how many die in the coun- tle, Minneapolis, New York related and aren't always
for the International Re- previous records. try from heat exposure. or Kansas City that don't noticed because of the
search Institute at Colum- Even Boston is exploring Summertime cooling cent- have the experience or stigma of homelessness
bia University. ways to protect diverse ers for homeless, elderly infrastructure for dealing and lack of connection to
Last summer, a heat wave neighborhoods like its Chi- and other vulnerable pop- with heat have to adjust as family.
blasted the normally tem- natown, where population ulations have opened in well." When a 62-year-old men-
perate U.S. Northwest and density and few shade trees several European countries In Phoenix, officials and tally ill woman named
had Seattle residents sleep- help drive temperatures up each summer since a heat advocates hope a vacant Shawna Wright died last
ing in their yards and on to 106 degrees (41 Celsius) wave killed 70,000 people building recently convert- summer in a hot alley in
roofs, or fleeing to hotels some summer days. The across Europe in 2003. ed into a 200-bed shelter Salt Lake City, her death
with air conditioning. Across city plans strategies like in- Emergency service work- for homeless people will only became known when
the state, several people creasing tree canopy and ers on bicycles patrol Ma- help save lives this summer. her family published an
presumed to be homeless other kinds of shade, using drid's streets, distributing Mac Mais, 34, was among obituary saying the sys-
died outdoors, including a cooler materials for roofs, ice packs and water in the the first to move in. tem failed to protect her
man slumped behind a gas and expanding its network hot months. Still, some 1,300 "It can be rough. I stay in during the hottest July on
station. of cooling centers during people, most of them elder- the shelters or anywhere record, when temperatures
In Oregon, officials opened heat waves. ly, continue to die in Spain I can find," said Mais who reached the triple digits.
It's not just a U.S. problem. each summer because of has been homeless on and Her sister, Tricia Wright, said
An Associated Press analy- health complications exac- off since he was a teen. making it easier for home-
sis last year of a dataset erbated by excess heat. "Here, I can stay out actual- less people to get perma-
published by the Columbia Spain and southern France ly rest, work on job applica- nent housing would go a
University's climate school last week sweltered through tions, stay out of the heat." long way toward protect-
found exposure to extreme unusually hot weather for In Las Vegas, teams deliver ing them from extreme
heat has tripled and now mid-June, with tempera- bottled water to homeless summertime temperatures.
affects about a quarter of tures hitting 104 degrees people living in encamp- "We always thought she
the world's population. (40 Celsius) in some areas. ments around the county was tough, that she could
This spring, an extreme heat Climate scientist David and inside a network of un- get through it," Tricia Wright
wave gripped much of Pa- Hondula, who heads Phoe- derground storm drains un- said of her sister. "But no
kistan and India, where nix's new office for heat mit- der the Las Vegas strip. one is tough enough for
facebook.com/arubatoday/ homelessness is widespread igation, says that with such Ahmedabad, India, popu- that kind of heat."q