Society not ready for heat waves coming with climate change – ‘The power grid can’t handle it’

By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
6 July 2012 Health officials are better prepared for heat waves than they used to be, but they have more to do in the face of climate change, experts say. “Nationally and internationally we are much more aware of the danger of extreme heat than we were in 1995,” says sociologist Eric Klinenberg, author of Heat Wave: A social autopsy of disaster in Chicago, about the three-day heat wave that caused 739 excess deaths and thousands of hospitalizations in 1995. “We’re more prepared than we were in 1995. A lot of Americans are still vulnerable, and our power grid is vulnerable, too.” Medical workers reported few problems related to the past week’s heat wave in parts of the USA that suffered extreme temperatures but were spared Friday night’s storms that knocked out power to more than 3 million customers. But in the District of Columbia, where heat and power outages struck together, sick patients at home who rely on electronic medical devices suffered doubly, and hospitals had to improvise, says Bill Frohna, chairman of the emergency department at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “Before the storm came we saw some heat-related stuff, but once you throw the power issue on top of the heat, families didn’t know what to do,” Frohna said. “When no one has power they don’t have a backup plan.” Even the Washington hospital had a plan for heat and a plan for outages, but not a plan for the two together, Frohna said. After storms cut power to millions, hospital workers Saturday saw a spike in patients with chronic diseases who need electricity to operate home dialysis units and machines that deliver intravenous fluids, medications, tube feedings and oxygen, Frohna said.  […] In Indiana, where the heat wave has been going strong for a week, 153 emergency patients visited the state’s emergency rooms for heat-related issues in all of last week, says Amy Reel, spokeswoman for the Indiana State Department of Health. The number of heat-related injuries has been relatively small because everyone is taking the heat seriously, says Wishard Hospital emergency physician John Boe. “There’s more awareness of how dangerous this kind of weather can be,” Boe said. […] Boe, who teaches at Indiana University’s Department of Emergency Medicine, says the Chicago heat wave of 1995 was a turning point in his field. “In our teachings, they always talk about the Chicago heat wave,” he said. Multiple factors led to the high death toll of the Chicago heat wave, Klinenberg says. High humidity combined with triple-digit heat and little nighttime cooling to turn the lakeside city into a furnace. Mayor Richard Daley and the city’s fire and health commissioners were away on vacation. And the city failed to implement its plan for extreme heat, Klinenberg says. High demand for electricity caused outages, and much of the city lost water as residents opened hydrants to cool off and then fought with city officials trying to close them. Most of the fatalities were elderly, isolated bachelors in the poorest sections of town, Klinenberg says. Even worse disasters happened in Europe in 2003, when 70,000 excess deaths were caused by an extreme heat event that lasted three weeks, and in Russia in 2010, when a heat wave caused 50,000 excess deaths. […] Klinenberg says cities such as Washington, Philadelphia and New York City are ill prepared. “We need to make sure that cities can get through the worst heat wave,” he says. “In New York City, police officers drive through streets using loudspeakers asking people to turn down their air conditioning during the day. The power grid can’t handle it.”

Society not ready for heat waves coming with climate change