Northwest heat wave targeted vulnerable, tested climate prep

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Karen Colby thought she could make it through an unprecedented Pacific Northwest heat wave with a little help from her neighbor, who dribbled cold water on her head and visited every hour to wrap frozen towels around her neck.

But when temperatures in her tiny fifth-floor studio soared to 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius), Colby suddenly stopped responding to questions and couldn't move from her recliner to her walker. The friend called an ambulance, and Colby, 74, wound up hospitalized for 10 days with heatstroke.

“We had just survived the coronavirus and had been in complete lockdown. We were basically in jail here," said Joel Aslin, Colby’s longtime friend who lives in the same apartment complex for low-income Portland residents who have a disability or are over 62.

“We did everything right and she survived — and then we had that stupid heat wave and that almost took her life," Aslin said.

The record-smashing heat that swept through cities from Portland to Vancouver, British Columbia, at the end of June silently killed scores of the region’s most vulnerable who could not leave their homes, afford air conditioning or get a ride to public cooling centers.

Consecutive days of temperatures as high as 116 F (47 C) in Portland made a folly of years of planning for more anticipated emergencies such as earthquakes and snowstorms — and it was only as the disaster unfolded that authorities got a sense of how devastating it would ultimately be. Emergency rooms overflowed, 911 calls spiked and death reports rolled in.

The crisis was a wake-up call for the normally temperate Pacific Northwest about what lies ahead with climate change and was a harsh lesson in how unprepared the region is, particularly when it comes to those living on society's margins.

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