HEAT-RELATED DEATH INCREASE AS TEMPERATURE RISE IN THE WEST
Record-breaking heat was expected throughout the West Coast this weekend, days after a deadly heat wave struck Oregon and Washington State.
Temperatures in Hermiston, Ore., were at 97 degrees when a worker at a Walmart distribution center collapsed and later died. Credit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times
By Sergio Olmos and Shawn Hubler
July 9, 2021Updated 5:14 p.m. ET
PORTLAND, Ore. Western states braced for another extreme spike in temperatures this weekend after a recent heat wave in Oregon and Washington State killed nearly 200 people.
Excessive heat warnings were in effect across inland California and the Southwest through the weekend, and the National Weather Service predicted that temperatures would approach an all-time high by Saturday in Las Vegas. A high of at least 130 degrees which would be one of the highest temperatures reliably recorded on earth was forecast for Death Valley.
InCalifornia, the agency that runs the state electrical grid asked residents on Thursday to set their thermostats at 78 degrees or higher to reduce power usage, and Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded a regional droughtemergency to cover all but eight of the state's 58 counties. He also asked Californians to cut their water consumption by 15 percent.
Threeweeks into a brutal summer across much of the nation, the heat has claimed lives in the Pacific Northwest in record numbers, threatened water supplies and set the stage in the West for what is expected to be another catastrophic fire season.
InWashington, the state health department reported that extreme heat had played a role in the deaths of 78 people since late June, while Oregon'smedical examiner raised the heat-related death toll in that state to atleast 116.
Thelarge number of deaths in a part of the country where summers historically have been temperate and heatstroke has rarely been a dangerunderscored both the sweep of climate change and the vulnerability of vast swaths of the population. Many of the deaths in the Pacific Northwest were among homeless people and those who were older or had medical issues.
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Trucks parked outside the Walmart distribution center where a man collapsed while working in a trailer without air-conditioning.
Trucks parked outside the Walmart distribution center where a man collapsed while working in a trailer without air-conditioning.Credit...Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times
On Friday, Oregon officials were investigating a possible heat-related workplace fatality at a Walmart warehouse.
Amiddle-aged man who was a trainee at Walmart's distribution center in Hermiston, Ore., "began stumbling and having difficulty speaking" at theend of the afternoon shift on June 24, said Aaron Corvin, a spokesman for Oregon Occupational Safety and Health. The man, who has not been identified, was transferred first to a hospital and then to a medical center in Portland, where he died.
The cause of the man's death has not yet been determined, and it could take several months to complete the investigation.
Theman's co-workers, who said he was in his 50s and had underlying health problems, said he had been with Walmart for about two weeks, earning about $18 an hour, and was working inside a hot trailer in which a fan was the only cooling mechanism. The National Weather Service reported a high that day of 97 degrees.
"We are devastated by the loss of one of our associates and are doing everythingwe can to support those affected," Scott Pope, a spokesman for Walmart,said. "The details surrounding the associate's passing are being assessed by medical professionals and OSHA. Out of an abundance of caution, we provided all information available to Oregon OSHA and are cooperating fully in their investigation."
Thedistribution center, a landmark in a community of about 17,000, employsabout 1,000 people and serves more than 100 Walmart stores in the Pacific Northwest. State records indicate the facility was cited by Oregon OSHA after a February 2020 inspection, but the violation a damaged floor grating was not deemed serious and was subsequently repaired.
For the past week, temperatures in the Pacific Northwest have dipped more toward their usual cool levels. But global warming has dramatically amplified the region's hot spells.
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Avigil was held for Guatemalan-born farmworker Sebastian Francisco Perez, 38, who died during the heat wave while moving field irrigation lines, in St. Paul, Oregon.Credit...Alisha Jucevic/Reuters
Thehazards have been particularly acute on job sites where manual labor isbeing done outside in the sun or in workplaces where a lack of air-conditioning has historically not been an issue. On June 26, two days after the death of the Walmart employee, a farmworker on an irrigation crew collapsed and died in 104-degree heat while moving irrigation lines in a field at a plant nursery in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
Thefollowing day, managers at an Amazon warehouse complex in Kent, Wash., became so concerned about the rising heat that they handed out iced scarves and scattered floor fans around the building to augment the facility's usually sufficient climate control measures, workers told The Seattle Times.
Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon directed Oregon OSHAto adopt emergency rules before the incoming heat wave, including requirements for employers to provide workers with shade, rest time and cool water during extreme heat events. The state had been working since last year to adopt permanent heat regulations for employers, but the effort was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
