Seattle and Portland Aren’t Built for Extreme Heat Waves

Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency ahead of this week’s heat wave, and the Portland Emergency Management Department mobilized 2,000 natural disaster response volunteers to help manage cooling centers, nebulization stations, and water to people to deliver who might need it. In some cases they go door to door.

Officials encourage people to check on their neighbors, especially if they are older or live on the street.

Along with more immediate efforts, emergency planners are discussing longer-term strategies, said Dan Douthit, a spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. Does the area in buildings have to be air-conditioned? Does the city need to set up dedicated cooling centers?

The June heat wave, which brought Portland temperatures to a record high of 116 degrees, would almost certainly not have occurred without global warming, an international team of researchers said. A key United Nations report this week found that warming will accelerate across the planet over the next three decades because of such a long delay in curbing fossil fuel emissions.

Warming threatens residents of low-income neighborhoods in particular. During the last heat wave, Dr. Vivek Shandas, professor of climate adaptation at Portland State University, with a calibrated thermometer in the poorest parts of the city and reached 121 degrees five degrees more than the official high for the day, recorded at the airport.

Now officials have Dr. Shandas asked to conduct an official study of heat accumulation across the city; A team of volunteer researchers planned to take temperature readings in East Portland with less shade and green space and report on their results.

“We are seeing a big shift in managers and local authorities who want to face these things because they hear that the deaths we had during the last heatwave were preventable,” said Dr. Shandas.