Raise the Hammer

When the City line is called, staff does have a list of places that are open today to offer some cooling relief such as community and rec centres. Unfortunately, some of the recreation centres are quite a walk for seniors or people with disabilities.

After much angst with the Public Health Department's three-pronged recommendations around when to call heat alerts, the City's official heat response has been turned over to the Community Social Services Dept.

The Department is hoping to open two cooling centres (one on the Mountain and one in the lower City) and will look at offering free transit for vulnerable people to get to those locations (either HSR or taxi chits).

That won't happen until the "third level" alert -- which is an actual heat alert with one day of 45 degree humidex reading or three days of 40 degrees humidex in a row.

Today is just a heat advisory.

They go: 'heat advisory', 'heat warning', 'heat alert'.

Public Health seemed to have forgotten: 'heat caution', 'heat concern' and 'heat anxiety' (I'm being fictitious with the last three, but the present system is more than confusing).

Eric Klinenberg's book (which I’ve had on my desk for the past month as a resource) is an excellent read about social isolation, but also reveals how the municipal government couldn’t recognize a crisis was upon them and then were far too slow to respond to Chicago’s period of extreme heat…and remember it only took a few days.

Good news locally is that some community groups are doing fantastic work in the absence of much guidance from the municipality. Concerned residents in the Beasley neighbourhood are planning to open their own cooling centre. As they always do, Hamilton’s shelters and community health clinics will be responding with resolve to ensure vulnerable residents are provided with shelter and water.

Lets hope we get through today without too much discomfort for vulnerable people. But we still have an entire summer ahead.