The topic was heat injuries and the risks associated with multi-day heat events like the Pacific Northwest experienced in June.
The following are notes provided by Seattle OEM. Great information and ideas for you to think about.
Should we be thinking about having a “Summer Heat Program” just like some communities get ready for winter storms or hurricane season? It makes sense to me to have more public education around heat emergencies.
Welcome and Introductions – Curry Mayer, OEM.
Curry Mayer welcomed everyone to the meeting, introductions included an icebreaker.
Planning for Extreme Heat, Perspective from UW Global Health – Kristie Ebi, UW School of Global Health
Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves worldwide. The extreme heatwave in the Pacific Northwest highlighted the risks and the need for plans for a warmer future with more heatwaves. Heat action plans have been developed in hundreds of cities worldwide. These include 1) early warning and response systems that include vulnerability mapping and appropriate responses, and 2) longer term plans for modifying built environments for warmer environments, such as reducing urban heat islands, implementing regulations for energy efficiency and possibly green roofs, and planting more trees in hotter areas of the city. Desk-based stress testing of early warning and response systems can increase confidence in the effectiveness of the system under conditions outside of historic experience.
Q: Curry – Could you speak about the effects on individuals from extreme heat, and then talk about actions the City could prioritize for the next heat incident.
A: Kristie – Focus on core temperatures as that indicates the body’s true temperature.
Presentation focused on the following points.
Those most at risk to heat.
- Adults 65 and over.
- The out of shape.
- Those with cardiovascular disease.
- Children and babies.
- Users of some meds that reduce your ability to sweat.
Heat related facts.
- Our bodies naturally try to reduce our temps by sweating and evaporation of that sweat.
- During heatwaves, deaths can occur within 24hrs.
- Your body temp cannot remain high for too long.
- Since we can reduce our core temps – all deaths are -preventable.
- Deaths peak after the peak of temperatures.
- After the event there is a reduction in deaths following the heatwave.
- Since we don’t have all the death certificates yet, we won’t know the true number of deaths from people whose conditions are exacerbated by the heat such as those with cardiovascular disease. These are considered excess deaths.
What do we do about it?
- Strategic planning
- Alert systems
- Heatwave and summer preparedness
- Communication plan
- Working with service providers
- Engaging the community
- Monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
Pharmacies have the numbers of people at risk and can reach out to them.
How many alerts should you have?
The UK has 5 levels compared to the US’s 3 levels which are based on our tornado response.
- 0 - Long term planning.
- 1 - Heatwave and summer preparedness program.
- 2 - Heatwave is forecast – alert and readiness.
- 3 - Heatwave action.
- 4 - Major incident.
Heat is an all of society problem and affects the following:
People
- Risks - Social inequity, illness and death.
- Action - Public health, labor, physiology, medicine, sports, etc.
Environment
- Risks – Fires, poor air quality, water scarcity and drought, cyclones, and uv radiation.
- Action – Environment, meteorology, climatology, etc.
Infrastructure
- Risks - Urban heat islands, emergency and power service disruptions, and poor-quality housing.
- Action – Architecture, engineering, urban planning, etc.
Q: Is there a threshold for taking action on an 80 to 90 degree day?
A: Kristie – we are acclimatized to living in the climate for Seattle. We can acclimatize to different temps over time and for each season. Most of the deaths occur earlier in the event.
Q: Tim Helming – Does research show what has the greatest impact for people in terms of aid or prevention?
A: Kristie – Basic long -term planning, such as a tree planting campaign.
We know that Heat action plans save lives, but we aren’t sure which parts of those plans do. I’d suggest focusing on education since we know that the heat definitely kills people. Some people don’t know what they can do to help themselves. We can engage faith-based organizations or NGOs to spread messaging.
The elderly are more susceptible to temperature changes and are sometimes less able to help themselves and are therefore, more at risk.
Ask: What would be the best places for cooling centers? Where are the most at-risk elderly live?
Q: Lucia – What is the difference between a dedicated cooling center and using open facilities with AC?
A: Kristie – Most places just have arrangements in place with facilities and locations with air conditioning. Then communicate with people to let them know where those locations are and the hours which they are open.
Q: TJ - How do we anticipate sizing the demand for cooling centers?
A: Kristie – Demand will start to rise towards the end of day 2 and into day 3. In week-long events there will be a spike in demand mid-week and then at the end of the week when people just can’t tolerate conditions anymore.
Planning for Future Excessive Heat Events – Matt Auflick and TJ McDonald, OEM.
During the June 26th-28th heatwave the City of Seattle issued public messaging and conducted outreach on how residents could stay cool, opened City facilities or extended facility hours to provide cool spaces for the public, and worked with external partners to provide expanded cooling center options. While these efforts were impactful, there are clearly improvements that could be made in these areas prior to the next heat wave. OEM will provide a brief overview of the City’s response during the recent heat wave and facilitate a discussion on the following topics:
What available data could better inform future responses? Including more information about where community needs exist (long term care facilities, senior centers, senior housing, which locations have A/C and which do not, incorporating heat island data into pre-event preparations etc.)
TJ - Recent heat island mapping - ArcGIS Web Application
Ivan – Demographic information for elderly individuals.
Is there a way to locate those at an increased risk to heat due to medications they are taking?
Lucia – Can we identify seniors living independently and susceptible to heat stress by identifying which houses haven’t sold in a number of decades?
Matt – Leveraging Rave Prepare to collect EEI/info from the public. Do we use this data, because if we do there is then some level of expectation that we’re going to take some action.
How can we reach more people with information about how to stay cool and the availability of cooling centers?
Eric Holdeman – Transportation is always a gap.
Kristi – Are you reaching the people that need to know the information that you’re trying to get out?
Engaging community groups and faith-based organizations to spread messaging effectively.
Michael Taylor Judd - Encourage people to check in on elderly/vulnerable people that they know.
Deborah – Messaging that went out on partners on Friday wasn’t read until Monday due to the fact that staff were out for the weekend.
Matt – Also, the method that we’re using to reach people could be expanded or more focused. Current messaging is more language focused.
Kristi – Make Heat planning a topic of conversation or an exercise at the beginning of the season.
How can we better measure who we have reached and not reached with public messaging?
- What barriers may exist that prevent people from using the cooling options provided?
- How can we address those?
How can we expand cooling center options? Both internally using City facilities, but also through community partnerships. (private-sector, community based organizations etc.)
What other policy options should be considered that could reduce overall community vulnerability during future heat events? (Mitigation to reduce heat islands, and building capability to respond to heat events)
Kristi – This is critically important to focus on long term planning such as infrastructure items like solar films/coatings on glass, tree planting, green roofs, etc. Stockholm example.
TJ - Work on preserving mature trees which are 25X more effective than new trees at heat prevention.
Kristi – Put in regulations regarding tree planting so newly planted trees can have room to mature without interfering with structures and preventing them from needing to be removed as they become more useful in heat prevention.
Lucia – Could we bring water-based options to different areas such as sprinklers, etc?
Deborah – Ask Seattle Center not to perform maintenance on their fountain in the summer.
Jill – Work on strategies to allow people to remain in their homes. Transportation planning is a time consuming and complicated effort and this would allow us to side-step this troublesome gap.
Address rules/restrictions regarding how far windows can be opened in taller buildings.
Good of the Order:
Nothing to report.
