Recent heat wave hard on pets, seniors and the rest of us
The recent heat wave this area has been facing seems like the
set-up for a joke.
Recent heat wave hard on pets, seniors and the rest of us
The recent heat wave this area has been facing seems like the set-up for a joke.
Me: “Last weekend was so hot …”
You: “How hot was it?”
Me: “It was so hot, ice cream was literally melting on store shelves … It was so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk.”
Okay, so that last one still wasn’t proven true, but it very well may have been possible as temperatures last weekend swelled to almost 115 degrees.
Power losses became a regular occurrence and people were planning their outfits according to what went best with sweat.
Beginning on July 21 and continuing throughout the following week, 13,000 customers in Hollister experienced power losses during 42 separate outages. Gilroy experienced 56 outages, which affected 10,000 customers; and Morgan Hill experienced 53 outages, which affected 1,600 customers.
David Eisenhauer, a spokesman for PG&E, explained that the outages were due to equipment that was not given a chance to cool off and people using extra additional appliances all at the same time.
Cooling off was a bit of a problem in Hollister, Gilroy and Morgan Hill. None of the major retail stores could keep fans in stock and had to turn away customers seeking to cool their homes.
The chilling problem went beyond a mere need for services, there weren’t even air conditioners to be installed, let alone serviced.
Signs at Lowe’s and Home Depot in Gilroy indicated that they were completely sold out of units. A manager for Lowe’s said that they sold out of all their air conditioning units on Saturday. He couldn’t give an exact number of units sold, but said that the aisle was 64 linear feet of space and they sold every unit they had. He was also unclear as to when they would be getting additional units.
The air conditioning repair business is working overtime as well. Dan Sorensen of San Benito Plumbing and Heating said that he’s been booked solid all week and the soonest anyone can get an appointment to get their a/c fixed is next week.
“It’s absolutely crazy right now,” Letty Penzo of Extreme Air said. “We’re a smaller operation, but I’ve heard some of the larger guys are booked for the next two weeks, we’re only booked through next week.”
Safeway in Hollister lost an unconfirmed amount of ice cream due to a compressor failure, but store managers said that the incident was not related to heat or power failure. However, store employees said that they heard that the compressor failure was directly related to the loss of power and or excessive heat.
In Gilroy things aren’t much better for seniors. The heat is causing many to look for shelter outside their homes, since many of the seniors don’t have the luxury of air-conditioning.
Saint Louise Hospital asked that the Gilroy Senior Center put together informational materials to distribute to seniors telling them how to stay cool and what to do.
“We’ve also been staying open later, until 5:30 or 6 p.m., so that seniors without air conditioning at their homes can have a cool place to come and escape the heat. This is a temporary thing, but we will extend it through this week,” Sandra Sammut of the senior center said in an interview last week.
Pauline Valdivia, District 3 councilwoman and director of the Jovenes de Antaño senior program in Hollister, said that the seniors she’s talked with have been keeping cool and haven’t had any heat related problems.
Lilly Berchem said that she has air-conditioning in her home, on the bus and at the senior center, so she doesn’t have to deal with the heat very much at all.
Jose Aguilar said that he doesn’t have air conditioning but he’s doing fine. He hasn’t been too affected and he just tries to stay out of the sun.
Others weren’t so optimistic. Darlene Fortine said that she’s barely holding up. During the day she doesn’t do a whole lot, which helps and she’s been staying out of the sun. She said it also helps to take cold showers.
Gloria Gastelum said that she has air conditioning at home, which helps considerably, but tries to stay out of the heat as much as possible.
Hollister Fire Department reported two heat-related calls throughout the weekend, one for heat exhaustion and another where wires were arcing due to heat.
Often the heat brings out the nuttiness in people and police see an upswing in bizarre calls, but Undersheriff Pat Turturici said that hasn’t been true this week.
“We haven’t received any more calls than usual. In fact, we’ve probably received less daytime calls. I think it’s because everyone is staying indoors.”
Gilroy Sgt. Kurt Svardal agreed that while sweltering temperatures sometimes bring out the nuts, this week has been no nuttier than any other given week during the year.
During the dog days of summer even the animals are suffering. Animal Control Supervisor Julie Carreiro said that the public reported five to six dogs died over the weekend due to heat stress.
“The public is losing animals because they are not providing adequate water supplies. If the bowl is too small the water gets too hot and the animals won’t drink it and can die,” Carreiro said.
She said that it is really important to provide five gallon buckets for dogs and to strap down the buckets so that the dogs can’t knock them over. Often what happens is that dogs like to dip their paws in the water and when they do this they can knock over the buckets.
Kiddy pools are also a great idea for dogs since they can drink out of them and submerge themselves if they get too hot.
For rabbits and small animals frozen water bottles and wet towels in cages help those animals keep their cool despite the summer sizzle.
Cats at the Hollister Animal Shelter are housed indoors with air conditioning. Dogs are misted throughout the day.
Cooler temperatures are projected to continue into next week. If it does heat up again, try hanging out in the frozen foods section of the nearest grocery store.
