Speaking of disability, accomodation, and social support, the Chronicle has been reporting on the death toll from our little heat wave:
The Great Heat Wave of 2006 was not just an epic meteorological event — it was an epochal one, unprecedented in the north state’s weather annals, meteorologists agree.
It has been hotter for longer than ever before, and the weather patterns that caused the scorching temperatures were positively freakish. The region’s last significant hot spell — in 1972 — lasted two days, and never in the past has the Bay Area suffered through as many consecutive days of temperatures above 110.
Not to be alarmist or anything, but I have difficulty believing that this is a freak event rather than a milestone in a trend. Sixty-eight percent of Chronicle online readers agree with me, apparently. Even if this particular heat wave is a meterological quirk, heat waves in general are increasingly becoming a problem. That means that deaths from heatstroke and dehydration are also an increasing problem:
As of Wednesday, the state Office of Emergency Services said 75 recent deaths probably were due to the heat wave. The victims’ ages range from 21 to 95, although most were elderly, said Ronni Java, an emergency services spokesman.
That many deaths is unusual for California, according the Department of Health Services. From 1999 to 2004 — the most recent period compiled by the state agency — roughly 30 people died every year from heat-related causes. In 2000, 40 people died from the heat.
Heat and solar radiation on average kill more U.S. residents each year than lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods or earthquakes, said Karl Swanberg, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. Between 1936 and 1975, about 20,000 U.S. residents died of heat.
Apparently, this intensity is a new thing:
Only a handful of California weather stations have data extending back for a century or more, but the ones that do demonstrate the significance of the current heat wave.
Sacramento’s records reach back to the 19th century, and there is nothing in them to suggest equivalent events, Newmerzhycky said.
“The greatest number of consecutive days for triple-digit temperatures for Sacramento was nine,” Newmerzhycky said. “That was reached several times, the last in 1996. But we broke it (Tuesday) with 10 days.”
On Wednesday, Sacramento made it an 11-day streak when temperatures reached 100 late in the afternoon.
It’s not just the scorching days that made this heat wave remarkable. It’s also the hot, sticky nights. In Sacramento, Newmerzhycky said, nighttime temperatures typically fall to 65 degrees or lower during even the most torrid heat waves. Not this time.
The current heat wave broke Sacramento’s record for highest overnight temperature. The record was 78 degrees and was established in 1909.
This article from yesterday focused on the deaths:
Twenty people have died in Fresno County alone, about a quarter of the statewide toll of 81 deaths attributed to the heat. Coroner Loralee Cervantes said Wednesday that decomposition was making the causes of death difficult to determine and the office was running out of space.
And this article focused on the people most vulnerable:
Candy Allen, a Salvation Army driver who delivers free meals to the elderly in Stanislaus County, typically gets a front-door greeting from one of her favorite clients, an 85-year-old man who lives with his cat.
But nothing has been typical about this month’s heat wave.
At about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Allen knocked on the door, which was slightly open, then pushed in when she heard faint mumbling. It was sweltering outside, she said, but hotter inside — well over 110 degrees.
“He was sprawled out on his couch, white as a ghost and glassy-eyed,” Allen, 42, recalled Wednesday, teary-eyed as she told the story. “His shirt and shorts were soaking wet. He’d been sweating all night.”
The man had a wall-mounted air conditioner next to him, but it was off. He said it was shorting out his electricity, forcing him to rely on a small fan. Rather than call for help, he was suffering through — barely.
This specific problem is the same as the general one: a lack of support, a lack of human contact, a (sometimes justified) lack of trust in the efficacy and good faith of social services. Elderly people are most at risk not merely because their health is frail, but because they are least likely to have access to help if they’re in trouble.