Beating the heat harder during pandemic

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This article was published 05/06/2021 (1689 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the sun shines bright and the mercury tops 30 C highs, community groups are helping people beat the heat and cope as the pandemic makes it harder to find a place to cool down.

The extreme heat will continue across southern Manitoba into next week and can be a safety risk for people outside, said Janelle Gergely, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

While hot temperatures aren’t abnormal or in record-breaking ranges in Brandon, the heat can still be dangerous, she said. The temperature on Friday was forecasted to be as high as 35 C and up to 32 C on Saturday.

If you’re going to be outside, try to plan activities in the morning or evening, rather than in the middle of the afternoon. Gergely said it’s important to take lots of breaks from the heat and stay hydrated.

“There’s a lot of things you can do to stay cool and avoid heat stroke and heat exhaustion with these high temperatures,” she said.

Not everyone has access to an air-conditioned room or a place to cool off though, including people experiencing homelessness.

Samaritan House Ministries will be open on Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. to give homeless people a place to cool down and get a sandwich or a bottle of water. The shelter was also open on Thursday and Friday afternoons as the temperature topped 30C, executive director, Barbara McNish said.

“It’s just a safe, cool place to be to get rested,” she said.

Concerns over COVID-19 have shut many air-conditioned, public buildings where people could otherwise go to escape the heat. People aren’t allowed to congregate in malls, so instead are largely left to be outside.

“We haven’t found a lot of places open,” she said.

“When you look at heat stroke or heat exhaustion, they can be fatal to you so when you’re out in the heat and you have no place to kind of cool down or have a reprieve from it, it could be fatal to you. We’re taking care of people and making sure they’re safe.”

The Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation will have water and ice available outside its downtown offices over the weekend, director Matt Grills said.

While some homeless people were able to get a break from the heat in the Town Centre, COVID-19 means that’s not an option during the current heat, he said.

There are competing emergencies in Manitoba right now, City of Brandon emergency co-ordinator Tobin Praznik said — both the pandemic and a heatwave.

“It certainly provides that additional challenge and we want to make sure we keep our community as safe as possible,” he said.

An emergency cooling centre could be opened if needed, but Praznik said the city is waiting on guidance from Prairie Mountain Health for information on the need as the weekend progresses.

Police officers and paramedics will also have cases of water bottles available to distribute during calls.

While some spray pads opened in Winnipeg on Thursday, the Kinsmen Pool is scheduled to open on June 15 and spray pads not until June 21.

The city’s schedule is based on the public health orders that were set to expire on June 12, Praznik said, but the province amended them to let spray pads reopen as cooling options during the heatwave.

“Right now, the focus is recruiting all the staff and training them up to speed… it was unexpected to get this release wth this heatwave on last-minute notice, so because we’re in those stages of recruiting the staff and getting them trained, those timelines are still the ones we’re looking to meet,” he said.

“We just didn’t have the flexibility to make those changes until we get all the correct procedures in place.”

On Friday, acting deputy chief provincial public health officer Dr. Jazz Atwal said the splash pads aren’t for recreation, but as a break from the heat.

“This isn’t a family of four with two parents and two kids who have air conditioning at home to go to a splash pad. This is maybe a single parent or two parents and two kids who live in a home without air conditioning who don’t have access to sprinklers or something, that they’re able to get out, cool down, stay for a short time and go back home,” he said.

The City of Brandon will be following public health orders once the splash pads open, Praznik said.

“Those procedures haven’t really been determined because we didn’t ahve the ability to open them up, but we’ll assess them when we have the opportunity and we will be meeting the requirements,” he said.

Until the splash pads do open, Praznik said it’s important to take opportunities to cool off, stick to the shade and drink lots of water. He also advised against strenuous outside exercise until temperatures cool off.

Gergely said the hot temperatures are forecasted to last into next week. There is also a risk of thunderstorms until it cools off, so people should be aware of the risk of lightning.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

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