Cooling centers likely won’t open in Sacramento amid heat wave. The reason is not coronavirus
The heat is on, but there are even fewer places to cool off than before.
This summer, however, the problem is further exacerbated because the coronavirus has closed public pools, community centers and libraries. That leaves families without air conditioning and thousands of homeless people with few places to go to escape the heat.
And this week, even with temperatures climbing to over 100 degrees, it’s unlikely the city will activate community cooling centers, which haven’t been opened since 2017, because the forecast high temperatures won’t reach the threshold in the plans to use them, city officials said.
Several cities and counties in the state did open cooling centers last week, implementing new guidelines from the California Department of Public Health that allowed the centers to open as long as they take measures to prevent the spread of the virus inside the buildings. Sacramento was one of the cities that received record-high temperatures during a heat wave several days ago.
The city of Fresno opened two daytime cooling centers last week, funded by Pacific Gas & Electric. That city opens the centers when the high on any given day is expected to be 105 degrees or highter. The city of San Jose opened five cooling centers last week.
In Sacramento and Yolo counties, temperatures have to hit 105 degrees for three days in a row to trigger cooling centers to open. On top of that, nighttime temperatures cannot dip below 75 degrees — a rarity even in the notoriously hot Central Valley.
Temperatures in Sacramento are forecast to hit 99 degrees Tuesday, 103 degrees Tuesday and 100 degrees Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Lows are expected to be in the 60s each night.
County and city officials, along with the National Weather Service, created the guidelines in 2012, part of the 27-page Sacramento Operational Area Severe Weather Guidance plan. A group of stakeholders review the document every one to three years, said county spokeswoman Janna Haynes. It was last reviewed by the county’s health department in June 2019, Haynes said, but the thresholds remain in place.
Officials also have the option to open cooling centers even if the temperatures don’t hit the thresholds, Haynes said, but decided against it last week.
“For this relatively short weather event and without meeting the threshold, cooling centers were not opened,” Haynes said in an email.
High temperatures in downtown Sacramento were between 100 and 104 degrees Monday through Thursday last week, according to the National Weather Service.
Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness, called the thresholds “inhumane.”
“I challenge our elected officials and homeless coordinators to come out of their air conditioned homes or offices and sit in Cesar Chavez park all day, without sunscreen, water and access to a bathroom, during this heat wave, to understand and hopefully empathize what people experiencing homelessness endure every day,” Erlenbusch said. “If they did, they would open up cooling centers immediately. The current cooling center guidelines would be like telling homeowners that their earthquake insurance doesn’t start until there is a 7.5 earthquake, followed by three consecutive days of at least 6.0 aftershocks.”
Erlenbusch is urging local officials to open the centers during future heat waves, especially if pools, libraries and community centers remain closed.
Crystal Dennis, who sleeps in a tent along the American River Parkway, said she would definitely go to cooling centers if they opened, for air conditioning and access to clean drinking water.
Before the pandemic, she went to Subway or McDonald’s for a cup of water or ice, but they are closed now, she said. When she needs water, she calls volunteers with the newly-formed Sacramento Solidarity with Unhoused People (SacSOUP) to bring her some.
“Some people are drinking the river water, which is unsafe, and then some people are just straight dehydrated because there’s no way to get any water,” said Dennis, 31, who’s been homeless for about three years. “It’s not good at all.”
Some homeless people have even resorted to drinking out of the hand-washing stations that activists and officials have been placing at the camps, leaving no water left for people to wash their hands to prevent the spread of the virus, said Joe Smith, advocacy director for Loaves and Fishes.
”Extreme heat is a major public health concern in California,” state health officials said in their cooling center guidance. “Exposure to extreme heat can cause a variety of health problems, including heat stroke and death.”
Yolo County also did not open cooling centers, following their own guidelines that contain the same temperature thresholds as Sacramento, said county spokeswoman Jenny Tan.
It costs about $1,300 for the city to operate a cooling facility at a community center for a 24-hour period, Sacramento city spokesman Tim Swanson said. Seven of the city’s 16 community centers are currently being used for to provide child care for health care and other coronavirus front line workers and a meal-distribution program, said Grace Nunez, another city spokeswoman.
