Derrick Lin

Community Issue – July 24, 2014

622 words

Main Story

            The Health Department opened cooling centers at the beginning of June to prevent heat exhaustion and heat-related deaths.

            There were 118 heat-related deaths in Missouri from 2011 to 2013. In addition to the cooling center at the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services, the Activity and Recreation Center and Columbia Public Library are acting as cooling centers as well. A cooling center is a building that allows the public to use its air-conditioned lobby, bathrooms and water fountains. Anyone who needs relief from the heat can visit these cooling centers during the building’s business hours regardless of the outside temperature throughout the summer, according to a June 8 article on the KOMU/NBC website.

            Andrea Waner, the public information officer for the Health Department, said the focus of the cooling center program is to raise awareness of heat exhaustion and educate residents on where they can go to get relief from the heat. Waner said the very young and the very elderly are most susceptible to heat exhaustion.

            “They perspire less and take more medications which makes them more vulnerable to extreme conditions,” Waner said.

In 2013, there were 14 heat-related deaths in Missouri, according to the Boone County Fire Protection District website. In 2011 and 2012, there were 52 heat-related deaths each year. The decrease in heat-related deaths in 2013 is due to fairer weather than in the previous two years.

            In 2011, average temperatures ranged from 1 to 6 degrees above normal during June, July and August, according to archives on the Missouri Climate Center website. In the summer of 2012, the state experienced an intense drought. Temperatures returned to normal in 2013, and precipitation levels increased in many parts of the state.

            From 1999 to 2010, an average of 618 deaths occurred nationwide each year due to heat-related circumstances, according to a Sept. 14, 2012, article on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. There was a large decrease in heat-related deaths from 2012 to 2013, but heat exhaustion is still a problem that can affect anyone at any time.

Sam Beck, a recent high school graduate, said he knows what heat exhaustion feels like.

            “You feel like you’re about to pass out,” Beck said.

            Beck has experienced heat exhaustion a couple of times when he was helping his grandfather move hay. He said he goes to a pool or a mall when he wants to cool off.

Waner said location is a major factor in deciding if a building should be a cooling center. A cooling center’s effectiveness is determined by its ability to help the largest number of people. She says that is what makes the recreation center a “prime spot.” The ARC is near schools, grocery stores and a bus line.

            The ARC has the longest operating hours of all the cooling centers. It is open a combined 103 hours during a single week. The ARC has acted as a cooling center for the seven years that the Health Department has implemented the program. Activity and Recreation Center Administrative Supervisor Joan Smith said the ARC’s long hours and large area make it a great cooling center.

            “We’re a community facility,” Smith said. “It just made sense.”

Smith said people who come to the ARC to get relief from the heat are usually there because their air conditioning broke or they just got too hot outside.

            “Sometimes people shopping at Gerbes will come over to take a break,” Smith said, referencing the grocery store across the street.

            ARC visitors are free to use the wireless Internet, vending machines and furniture in the main lobby while they cool off.

            The full list of cooling centers in the Columbia area is available on the KOMU website.