Hot Tips: Water, Shade and Awareness

By Tom Beal, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Jun. 17–Simple rules for desert survival:

–If you’re out in the heat, drink plenty of water.

–Then drink some more water.

–And whatever you do, don’t sit in the car with the windows rolled up, or leave your kids or your pets in the car.

Disobey the rules, somebody could die.

Bill Broyles has tested the rules but not completely broken them, and so has lived to tell the tale of the “Devil’s Driveway.”

His experience sitting in his car with the windows rolled up at his Tucson home, excerpted here, is a prelude to more wide-ranging adventures described in his new book, “Sunshot: Peril and Wonder in the Gran Desierto.”

Broyles is a desert rat who explores remote places and writes lyrically about them. He takes a daily midday walk near his Tucson home and has walked for miles and days in the driest parts of the Sonoran Desert. He has nearly died doing so, and has learned some truth.

“You can do a lot of things if you have enough water. If you don’t have enough, you will die. Nobody is stronger than the sun. You cannot, in summertime, carry enough water to go more than a day.”

So, if you’re out in the heat, drink lots of water. If you’re doing physical labor, replace your body’s salts as well.

Watch for signs of dehydration and heat exhaustion — nausea, muscle soreness, fatigue. Stop what you’re doing the minute you start feeling a little funny — seek shade, drink water.

If you wait, you may lose your ability to do something about it.

“Part of the definition of heatstroke is you can’t recover without outside intervention. It’s very insidious,” said Broyles.

Dr. Mike McLaughlin, resident in emergency medicine at University Medical Center, said confusion is the hallmark of heat stroke. “Your neurological system is starting to be affected and other organ systems affected. It’s a life-threatening illness, with very high body temperature, an altered level of consciousness and damage to liver, kidneys, heart and brain as a result of the illness.”

One minute you’re fine; the next, you’re in trouble. Katharine Kent can testify to that.

Kent, the president of The Solar Store, was at a client’s house along the San Pedro River south of Tombstone, unloading equipment for a system update, including some batteries that weighed 125 pounds each.

“I was fine, running around and doing stuff, and I started feeling nauseous and really weak, and I knew right then.”

Kent said she is always preaching to her employees about the need to stay hydrated. She buys Gatorade powder in bulk. “This year we even bought an ice-maker.”

But she hadn’t followed her own advice that day. “I just sat down in the truck and said I’m done for the day now.”

The customer brought her some lemonade. “I was so nauseated I could hardly keep the lemonade down.”

She survived. Most of us do, said Broyles.

“If you talk to people who work outside, people in the trades, almost everybody has a story about when they hadn’t tanked up enough on water. That doesn’t mean we should hate the desert or move somewhere else,” he said.

It does mean, he said, that we should be careful, especially with our children and elderly. And, it should go without saying, but you should not, under any circumstances, attempt to emulate Broyles or repeat his experiment. “I’ve had several people say ‘You’re absolutely crazy,’ which I didn’t even argue.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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