Portland, Seattle, Other Northwest Communities Prepare for Potentially Historic Heat Wave | The Weather Channel – Articles from The Weather Channel

• Officials in several cities planned to open cooling centers for people to escape the dangerous heat.
• Many facilities, such as libraries that were closed due to COVID-19, have reopened.
• Air conditioners are flying off store shelves. A Portland hardware store had to wait four hours to buy one on Monday.
• The electricity suppliers said the electricity grid should be able to withstand the demand caused by the heat wave.

Communities across the northwest are preparing for the unprecedented hot temperatures expected this weekend, warning residents that the heat could be fatal.

A heat wave will kick in this weekend and last until early next week, with dangerous three-digit highs threatening all-time records in parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The high temperatures are forecast to be more than 20 or even 30 degrees above average.

In Portland, Oregon, where highs could jeopardize the city’s all-time record of 107 degrees, officials are opening three cooling centers starting Friday afternoon.

“This is life-threatening heat,” said Dr. Jennifer Vines, health officer for Multnomah County surrounding Portland, in a statement. “People need to find a cool place to spend time in the coming days. And for people who already have something cool, it’s their job to reach other people. Ask them to join you or help them get to a place that is reasonably cool. ”

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Another Multnomah County Health Department official warned that nighttime temperatures will remain unusually hot, increasing the risk of heat-related illnesses.

“The research we have shows that these nightly lows are really important to health,” Brendon Haggerty, interim supervisor for the Department of Health’s healthy homes and communities, said in a statement. “People rely on these temperatures to relax and cool their homes. But nights won’t bring the relief we would normally get. ”

“This is a real public health emergency,” said Dan Douthit, Public Information Officer for the Portlands Bureau of Emergency Management, to weather.com.

Libraries and other public institutions are extending their hours of operation to provide people with a place to get away from the heat, Douthit said.

Like other cities, Portland reopened many such facilities after they closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Douthit said the priority now is getting people to cold centers, especially people who don’t have a home.

Vines also said in her statement that the precautions taken for the pandemic are less important during this emergency.

“COVID precautions are important for people who are not fully vaccinated, but right now these precautions are secondary,” she said. “In the same way that we said during the September forest fires to get people inside, we now say, ‘Go to some cool place.'”

However, in neighboring Clark County, Washington, COVID restrictions continue to reduce the number of cooling centers.

“Many of our locations that we normally use for cooling centers are not available,” Eric Frank, Public Information Officer at the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency, told KGW. “We’re trying to get creative and find new options and figure out what we can do.”

“We are really looking to our religious organizations and corporations ready to open their doors and help us through these record breaking hot days,” said Frank.

Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan said the COVID restrictions have also reduced the number of accommodations in that city.

“In the coming week, we’re reopening many urban facilities to individuals to stay cool, but many of our city’s interiors will remain closed or have reduced capacity due to state and local public health regulations,” Durkan said in a statement Monday. “As a reminder: drink plenty of water, reduce strenuous outdoor activities, check neighbors and people at risk of heat, and don’t leave pets in the car.”

Seattle’s Central Library and several neighborhood branches reopened during peak hours this week, but they continue to have construction capacity reduced by 50%, the city statement said.

The city’s outdoor pools, paddling pools and spray parks have also reopened this week. The guarded beaches will reopen on Saturday.

Spokane, Washington, is also planning to open a refrigeration center, city spokesman Brian Coddington told weather.com.

“We warned people to plan ahead and be prepared,” Coddington said. “Think about traditional alternatives to staying in a hot house, such as visiting the malls that are reopening with reduced capacity.”

He also mentioned local businesses and movie theaters as places to find air conditioning, and the city’s pools and wading pools reopened after they closed due to COVID.

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Electricity officials have said they do not expect any problems meeting the increased demand for electricity due to the heat wave.

“There should be enough power. We have no evidence that this is a problem for us. Of course we are watching closely and at this point in time we do not see any problems in continuing to supply our customers with electricity, ”said Andrea Platt, spokeswoman for Portland General Electric, to KGW.

Pacific Power spokesman Drew Hanson said, “So heat waves are something Pacific Power prepares for every year – so it’s not new to us. We are prepared for this, but do not expect any power interruptions due to the heat, ”he said.

Puget Sound Energy, Washington’s largest energy company, encourages customers to be more energy conscious during the heatwave.

“PSE’s electrical infrastructure is currently functioning well across its coverage area and energy usage is being closely monitored,” the utility said in a statement sent to weather.com.

Air conditioning systems, many of them new, will put a strain on these power grids.

“We had to wait four hours to get to our store on Monday,” Norman Chusid, owner of Portland’s 115-year-old Ankeny Hardware, told weather.com in a phone interview on Thursday. “All the big stores in the area and all the hardware stores and variety stores sent everyone here,” because Ankeny was the only place with air conditioning and portable air conditioners.

He said in the first three days of this week the business, which his family has owned for 74 years, sold about 250 portable air conditioners and 200 window units.

“We’re known in Portland for having a ridiculous amount of inventory,” Chusid said, adding that people would come into the store from 30 to 40 miles away.

“Monday we did business for a month, on Monday we did business for a whole month. Tuesday we did business for a month. Yesterday we probably did business for two and a half to three weeks. Today it’s probably I’m not going to do this because we’re running out of things to sell, “he said.

Chusid said he is now taking orders for about 50 portable units, which are expected in three upcoming shipments. They won’t be there in time for this heat wave, but they will come in handy for the rest of the summer.

“Portland is very unique and I’ve lived here all my life,” said Chusid. “When it snows, they wait until there is six inches of snow to buy tire chains. Nobody seems to be prepared in advance. … It’s the nature of people, especially in Portland, to say, gee, and air conditioning is $ 200-300 and I don’t want to spend when I don’t need it. So I just wait until I need them. Well, if you need them, everyone else will, and it will be a huge storm of people who need stuff. ”

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At McLendon Hardware in Renton, Wash., South of Seattle, manager Bobby Knick said the store is running out of air conditioners.

“The hardest to come by are of course the air conditioners, the portable air conditioners are really hard to come by. I don’t think there is currently a dealer who has any. Especially after yesterday we sold our last one yesterday, ”Knick told KING.

It’s not surprising that people are rushing to get air conditioners.

Less than half of the residential units in the Seattle metropolitan area, 44%, have air conditioning, according to the US Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey. About 79% of Portland homes have air conditioning.

Knick offered this advice to people who don’t have air conditioning.

“If you have a fan at the highest height in your house and you can blow it out and open the (windows) below, especially for sleeping at night, a transverse draft is created that dissipates the heat and the cool air from the night into the house to it cool off quickly, ”he said.

Northwest residents who already have air conditioning keep the repair technicians busy.

Sam Murzea from MP Heating & Air Conditioning told KGW that he receives more than 200 service calls a day.

“This was the busiest start to a summer season any of us in the HVAC industry or in most construction or craft businesses,” said Murzea, who is now booking appointments for a week or two.

He warned that even perfectly functioning air conditioners might not make a home as cool as the owner expects. Devices that are designed for the climate in the northwest are designed to operate at temperatures of 85 to 95 degrees.

“With temperatures in excess of 100 degrees, you’ll find that your system is unlikely to get the 72.68 number that you’re used to. So you have to be more patient and understand that they don’t work that way, “Murzea said.

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