Facing the Heat: Three Counties Shape Emergency Response Plans — Just in Case
By Ken Carlson, The Modesto Bee, Calif.
Jun. 21–Ron Kojakanian of Modesto is haunted by the July heat wave that took the life of his neighbor and longtime friend.
Amid the stifling heat, he invited 72-year-old Joan Alford to leave her Dalton Way home and stay at the house he shares with his parents.
His neighbor was college educated and once had run an employment agency in town, but she suffered from back pain and anxiety and rarely left her home, Kojakanian said.
After he saw her lying on the living room floor, rescue workers broke in. The temperature was close to 100, and an air conditioner wasn’t operating.
As summer officially begins today, Kojakanian still wishes he could have done something to save her.
“I was told that even if we called someone like the police or fire department, because we were not related to her, she could have said she didn’t want help and they wouldn’t do anything,” he said.
Officials in the Northern San Joaquin Valley have been drawing on their experience from last year in preparing to respond to the next heat wave.
By July 1, Stanislaus County agencies expect to have a response plan, and other counties have been preparing as well.
So far, there are no forecasts for a heat wave similar to last year’s disaster, which claimed 23 lives in Stanislaus County, 17 in San Joaquin County and five in Merced County, according to the state Office of Emergency Services. But the National Weather Service is projecting a warmer-than-normal summer.
Gary Hinshaw, fire warden for Stanislaus County, said fire departments, public health officials and relief groups are involved in drafting the plan. County plans are supposed to be consistent with a state contingency plan published in December.
The state will rely on the National Weather Service to issue an advisory if it foresees a period of excessive heat. The state Office of Emergency Services will alert the counties and county emergency officials will consider the local weather in deciding whether to take action.
Stanislaus County’s plan will include opening cooling shelters during the day, providing transportation for people who need a ride to shelters, establishing a hot line, providing any needed assistance to care facilities and other measures to protect vulnerable people.
The plan also will deal with the threat to livestock, especially poultry and dairy cattle.
What is extreme in valley?
Hot summer days are common in the San Joaquin Valley, so officials will have to make a judgment call in deciding when to declare an emergency.
Hinshaw said he will rely on advice from the Weather Service, state OES and experts with local agencies.
Beside extreme heat, other factors that could trigger a response include heat combined with electricity blackouts, or an abnormal number of medical emergencies or livestock deaths.
“If you have a plan, all of the agencies know what their role is,” Hinshaw said. “We all know what we need to do to assist and protect the public. It’s much more effective to have a plan that we all agreed upon.”
The 2006 heat wave was unusual for the Modesto area, not just because of its 11 days above 100 degrees and three straight days of 111 degrees.
The valley is known for dry heat, but the high temperatures in July came with humidity, which intensified the heat.
The heat index, a measure of the air temperature and atmospheric humidity, reached 118 in July, making it likely that prolonged exposure would result in sunstroke and heat exhaustion.
In addition, the scorching days were followed by warm nights with temperatures as high as 86 degrees, so people didn’t get much relief.
Hinshaw said it will be important to keep an eye on the heat index. By itself, a couple of days of triple-digit heat likely won’t trigger a response.
Ron Baldwin, emergency operations director for San Joaquin County, said he thinks the threshold for calling an emergency should be somewhere from 107 to 110 degrees.
“I think it’s reasonable to keep it high,” he said. “We can’t get to the point where a 105-degree day spurs an emergency.”
The ill, elderly, isolated at risk
A variety of agencies in San Joaquin County will respond in an emergency. Cities such as Stockton and Manteca can open cooling shelters during the day. And county social services can notify public health about clients who may be vulnerable during a heat wave, Baldwin said.
Manteca has a Community Emergency Response Team that went to the homes of elderly residents last year and found a woman ailing from heat stroke. She was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Hospitals are involved in the planning, too. “We try to coordinate efforts in any kind of seasonal surge of patients, whether it is a heat wave or flu season,” said Cindy Young, emergency services manager at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto.
Patients going to emergency rooms during heat waves often are dehydrated, and high temperatures have an impact on chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Hospitals can refer patients to cooling shelters after treatment.
Over the winter, Stanislaus County health officials analyzed the deaths from the 2006 heat wave. The victims were 15 men and eight women ranging in age from 51 to 87.
Thirty percent lived in trailers or mobile homes; 26 percent were obese; 50 percent had cardiovascular disease; 26 percent had drug or alcohol abuse as a related condition; three were deaf or blind.
Dr. John Walker, public health officer, said by far the most significant risk factor was social isolation. Seventy percent of the victims lived alone; 87 percent were not married.
Walker said the response plan will encourage neighbors to check on neighbors and community groups to visit to frail individuals.
One problem is that rescue workers can’t force mentally competent people to leave their homes.
Mike Payton, Modesto’s fire marshal, said if someone is in imminent danger, firefighters will advise the person to stay with a neighbor or go to a cooling shelter.
“It is hard to get people to evacuate their homes even in a (wildland) fire,” Payton said. “It is their right to stay there, and if they are competent enough to tell you they are staying, they stay.”
Stanislaus County’s response plan also will deal with high mortality among livestock during a heat wave. With a single rendering plant in the county and six in the entire state, there isn’t enough capacity to handle the large number of carcasses, said Dennis Gudgel, county agriculture commissioner.
The carcasses must be removed quickly because they attract flies and other insects that can spread disease.
Last year, cattle, chicken and turkey carcasses were trucked to the county landfill near Crows Landing. Gudgel said he’s talking with the dairy and poultry industries about providing transportation to the landfill.
Agency representatives began meeting on the Stanislaus County plan last week, but officials said they are set up to respond to a heat wave now.
Jim Money, emergency services director for the Stanislaus County Chapter of the American Red Cross, said it can have cooling shelters up and running in a couple of hours. The Red Cross staffs the shelters and the county Health Services Agency provides health workers to evaluate people for heat-related illness.
Two neighbors died
Jennifer Davis lives in an apartment on North Seventh Street in Modesto where a man died last summer. He was one of two next door neighbors in the cluster of apartments to succumb to the heat.
Davis, 27, said she moved from Marysville in October to enter a program to get off alcohol and drugs. The apartment didn’t have an air conditioner, so she bought her own and her grandfather hooked it up in her bathroom window. It makes things cooler for Davis and her cat, Howie.
Davis, who graduated from the rehab program, said she should be able to ride out another heat wave. “I have the AC, and as long as I take care of myself, I’m good,” she said.
For information about protecting yourself in a heat wave, go to www.stanemergency.com. Bee staff writer Ken Carlson can be reached at kcarlson@modbee.com or 578-2321.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Modesto Bee, Calif.
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