7/29/2022
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Range Media
Spokane mayor's office has plans to dismantle cooling shelter at Camp Hope
The Spokesman-Review
WSDOT in hot water over cooling tent
Nonprofits, advocates urge city officials to rethink policy on cooling centers as heat wave sets in
Rental housing shortage in many major U.S. cities
How to protect older loved ones from dangers of heat wave
KXLY
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Range Media
Luke Baumgarten
The interior of the cooling tent at Camp Hope in Spokane, Wash. on Thursday, July 28, 2022 (Erick Doxey for RANGE Media)
HEAT WAVE DAY 4 | Meanwhile, City Council has plans that would allow the shelter to remain
We've been checking in with our unhoused neighbors at Camp Hope every day during this heat wave to see how they’re faring and what they need. Read Day 1 here, Day 2 here and Day 3 here.
Mayor Nadine Woodward’s administration intends to force Camp Hope to dismantle its cooling shelter amid 104-degree weather days, according to a series of emails obtained by RANGE today, Thursday July 28.
The key email in the thread was sent just before noon today, and came from Interim City Attorney Lynden P. Smithson, wherein Smithson details a plan to tell the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) that the temporary cooling shelter is an illegal building and demand the agency remove it from their property by Monday, Aug. 1.
In the email, Smithson says the intent is to draft and send this letter to WSDOT today. By mid-afternoon, WSDOT eastern region administrator Mike Gribner confirmed that they’ve received this letter and plan to respond within a day or two. “We’re still contemplating how we’re going to respond,” he said.
Separately, members of city council, spearheaded by Council President Breean Beggs, have been in communication with WSDOT and local safety officials, including Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer, on the necessary steps required to allow the shelter to remain onsite and functional at Camp Hope.
The documents, and RANGE’s subsequent reporting, outline a fundamental disagreement between city administration and city council about how best to help not just the people at Camp Hope, but everyone affected by this heatwave.
The exterior of the cooling tent at Camp Hope. (Photo by Carl Segerstrom)
Smithson’s email was sent to a large group of city leaders, including the Mayor’s cabinet, all city council members and their staff, Chief Shaeffer and Fire Marshal Lance Dahl.
In the email, Smithson outlines the administration’s position that the cooling shelter at Camp Hope is unpermitted and therefore illegal, and also not a part of the administration’s extreme heat plan, which currently extends the working hours of four local Spokane Public Library buildings to serve as cooling shelters.
The closest authorized shelter to Camp Hope is over a mile away, at the Liberty Park Library on Pittsburg St. That distance makes these locations practically useless for people at Camp Hope.
Smithson details that a core part of the plan to get people to the approved cooling shelters is via the Spokane Transit Authority, and that STA is offering free bus fare to anyone seeking cooling shelters. That might work for people with easy access to transit, but the closest bus routes to Camp Hope — the 94 and the 90 — either require a half-mile walk to catch the bus (Route 94) or a half mile walk to the library after exiting at the nearest bus stop (Route 90).
Many Camp Hope residents have mobility issues, making a walk of that distance impractical at best, if not outright dangerous in the extreme heat. One Camp Hope resident, Christy Sumner, told Range that she spent yesterday in the hospital getting fluids after getting overheated and dehydrated in her van.
As our reporting has detailed, residents often face theft when they leave their things unattended or are forced to haul all of their belongings on a bus and then into a library.
Smithson’s email was in response to an email sent by Councilmember Michael Cathcart early Thursday morning to Smithson and City Administrator Johnnie Perkins asking them to address “legal questions and precedence concerns” Cathcart had surrounding permitting the Camp Hope cooling shelter.
Cathcart’s email, in turn, was in response to an email sent on Wednesday night by Council President Beggs giving councilmembers an update on a conversation Beggs had with Fire Chief Shaeffer about the steps needed to make the cooling tent legal, permitted and permissible.
Taken together, the three emails paint a picture of conflict between City Council and the Mayor’s Office. On one side, the council’s progressive majority is pushing to allow Camp Hope to continue providing direct on-site heat relief to its residents. On the other side, conservative councilmember Cathcart expressed his concerns and the Woodward administration is actively opposing any on-site cooling structures for Camp Hope.
In addition to wanting to keep the cooling efforts to the specifically sanctioned libraries, Smithson states in no uncertain terms that “The Administration does not want the encampment to expand and at City Legal we have some concerns for liability with the tent that has been erected.”
An email to Smithson seeking comment was not returned by publishing. A phone call to city Communications Director Brian Coddington sent us to Communications Manager Kirsten Davis. Davis eventually responded by email with a statement that read, in part:
"In light of the heat wave and purpose of the tent, the City has issued a Notice of Violation to WSDOT for the tent structure on their property with the request to have it disassembled on Monday, Aug. 1 when temperatures are expected to return to normal. The City and its leadership are very concerned that an occupant could be injured or there could be a serious fire event at the site causing mass casualties. The goal is to balance compliance with existing health and safety laws and the risk the City and its tax payers are undertaking with the untenable situation on the WSDOT property."
In Council President Beggs’ initial email that kicked off this chain of correspondence, from late Wednesday night, Beggs gives a brief rundown of the issue that does not include any fear of mass casualties: “Because it is a large tent, it requires a sign-off from the City Fire Marshall. It sounds like the tent would comply with Fire Marshall rules, but he can't process it until he receives confirmation that the landowner consents to the tent.”
Fire Marshal Lance Dahl, who was CC'd on Smithson’s email and who was on-site at Camp Hope after the tent had been built on Wednesday morning, would not comment as to whether the building was safe or permittable.
Fire Chief Schaeffer didn’t specifically respond to whether or not he thought there was a path to permitting the structure either, or whether the administration’s 4-library cooling plan was adequate, but offered a sort of plea for peace, writing, in part:
"… it is vital from the FD’s perspective that the safety of our whole inclusive community is a priority. Extreme weather and the unhoused is a highly charged topic, and the situation has been extremely dynamic. Information is changing hourly, making communicating professionally very difficult. I ask that everyone give grace to the staff, leaders, electeds, and our community members trying to navigate the situation.”
We followed up asking both Chief Schaeffer and Davis to clarify if the core concern was truly “a serious fire event at the site causing mass casualties,” or just a matter of figuring out how to untangle a permitting mess.
Neither Schaeffer nor Davis responded to that question, but we will update this story if they do.
In Beggs’ telling of his conversations with WSDOT and Chief Schaeffer, the stumbling block was not anything inherent to the safety of the cooling shelter, but rather ambiguities around who would be authorized to build such a structure on that land. Because the land is owned by WSDOT, but the building has not been erected with the consent of WSDOT, and because of liability concerns, there’s no clear way to permit the building without help from the city.
In his email summary to council Wednesday night, Beggs wrote:
“WSDOT doesn't feel like it can consent to the tent until the City signs a brief agreement for a low cost lease and hold harmless provisions. The Mayor thus far has refused to do so. WSDOT suggested erecting the tent in the City's right of way and closing off that portion of [road] but according to the Chief the Mayor is refusing that as well. There was also a proposal to erect the tent in the parking lot at the Hive library but that was also rejected.”
Beggs was not the person who shared the email thread, and asked RANGE to make that clear as a condition of speaking with us on Thursday afternoon.
Beggs said there was no truly good solution to a heatwave during an acute housing crisis, but some solutions are better than others, and in his opinion, the best solutions involve listening to the people you are trying to help.
“Whatever you’re doing, you have to start with the population you’re trying to serve and find out what their needs are,” Beggs said. “Not because they’re in charge, but to know what is going to work.”
“It’s public health 101 to do harm reduction. You assess what the target population is going to do, or is likely to do, and create your plan accordingly,” he concluded, “It makes no sense to post tips on the web if the people you are trying to reach don’t have access to the internet.”
Swamp coolers inside the cooling tent at Camp Hope in Spokane, Wash. on Thursday, July 28, 2022 (Erick Doxey for RANGE Media)
Camp Hope resident Chris Senn, a veteran and painter by trade, expressed this exact frustration with the way the city government makes decisions and judgements about Camp Hope without visiting the camp and understanding the needs of people who live there.
“[The City Council and Mayor] sit downtown and claim they know what we want and we’ve all said come out and talk to us,” said Senn, who lost his job and housing three months ago when he could no longer afford transportation. “Let’s have a great conversation. Let us tell you what we actually need, you can’t just sit downtown and think you know what we need.”
When we directly asked Beggs if he felt the Mayor’s cooling plan was in the spirit of the heat emergency ordinance council passed last year, the council president replied, “It is not in the spirit of that law.”
Councilmember Stratton, in an email response to a request for comment on whether the cooling shelter should be dismantled or allowed to stay, was unequivocal:
“Not only should the cooling center at Camp Hope be allowed to stay, but the Administration should be doing everything possible to provide services and relief to this population. This includes working with all partners --- instead of passing the buck, blaming other entities, and not taking responsibility to protect the people who have nowhere else to go. The dehumanizing of Camp Hope must stop and so must the political posturing. These are people and they need our help.”
While the administration and council are at loggerheads, Beggs believes council has a trump card in this dispute.
Council normally approves decisions like entering into an agreement with a property owner like WSDOT that the mayor then signs, but the mayor doesn't have to be the person signing it.
“Theoretically, under city charter, the city council president can sign agreements on behalf of the city when a majority of council members authorize and consent," Beggs told us. "Usually we authorize the Mayor to sign something, but council can also authorize me to sign it.”
It’s also possible that Empire Health Foundation (EHF) could sign an agreement with WSDOT that could clear the permitting logjam. We previously reported that EHF was the primary funder in the purchase of the cooling shelter, making them a viable candidate to shoulder the liability WSDOT is concerned about.
“That’s probably the easiest route,” Beggs said.
WSDOT in hot water over cooling tent
By Greg Mason
The city of Spokane has sent a letter to the state Department of Transportation seeking action over a cooling tent built on WSDOT property for the Camp Hope homeless population.
The tent has fans and misters in an attempt to keep the hundreds living at the homeless encampment along Second Avenue and Ray Street, known as Camp Hope, cooler during this week’s heat wave. And while WSDOT is not officially allowing the tent to exist, state officials haven’t planned on stopping it to date – mirroring its overall approach with Camp Hope itself.
In a letter dated Wednesday to WSDOT, however, Spokane Fire Department Fire Marshal Lance Dahl identified the cooling tent as an “illegally constructed temporary structure” and requested its removal.
Failure to remove the tent by 9 a.m. Monday could result in a civil infraction of $536 for every day the structure remains in place after the deadline, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Spokesman-Review.
Spokane fire Marshal Lance Dahl has sent a letter to the Washington state Department of Transportation putting WSDOT on notice over the cooling tent serving the residents of the homeless encampment on WSDOT land at Second Avenue and Ray Street, also known as Camp Hope.
In an interview Thursday, Dahl said the notice was sent as a request for WSDOT to take responsibility for the situation – either by officially allowing the tent to exist, so the city can issue operators a permit, or to trespass the tent off the property.
“And how we go forward from that is based on what WSDOT’s stance is,” he said.
The cooling tent itself is owned and run without local or state funding by the nonprofit Jewels Helping Hands, which is overseeing the hundreds living in Camp Hope. The Empire Health Foundation has agreed to fund Jewels with approximately $21,000 for the tent’s staffing and operational costs into next week.
Temporary structures – specifically, tents with sides of at least 400 square feet – need a permit from the city’s fire marshal in order to operate in accordance to fire code, Dahl said. The cooling tent is 1,950 square feet.
City spokesperson Kirstin Davis said the city, by law, cannot issue a permit without WSDOT’s authorization of the cooling tent activities, however.
“We have requests all the time for all sorts of tents to be put up, so it’s important to be consistent and follow the laws,” Davis said. “The laws are in place for the safety and health of people. We’re trying to balance that in this difficult situation.”
WSDOT does not have a response at this time to the fire marshal’s letter, according to a spokesman.
The letter says WSDOT “may” face the $536 per day infraction if the tent is not removed by Monday morning.
“’May’ is always a hedge,” Dahl said. “If we’re going to issue tickets upon the resumption or upon the nonresult or clarification of an ask when we are writing notice of violation, we would use a term like ‘will.’ ‘May’ implies if we can’t come to a resolution that’s agreeable to the city, the state fire code, the property owner and Jewels Helping Hands, the possibility of writing a civil infraction is always there.”
Discussions among city leaders have included ideas about moving the cooling tent somewhere else, such as onto a city right of way or into part of the parking lot at the Hive library, as they consider all options, Davis said.
“In light of the heat wave and obviously the purpose of the tent, the notice of violation to WSDOT and requesting that it be disassembled Monday when temperatures are expected to return to normal, that felt like middle ground to handle that as best we could,” she said.
With highs of 100 degrees or above expected through the weekend, the National Weather Service has declared an excessive heat warning in effect through 11p.m. Sunday. Temperatures are forecast to drop into the low- to mid-90s on Monday before falling into the 80s for the rest of the week.
The city administration “absolutely” would prefer Camp Hope residents use the city libraries as cooling centers, Davis said. The city has expanded the hours at the Central, Shadle Park, Liberty Park and Hillyard libraries to serve as cooling centers through Sunday.
The closest to Camp Hope, Liberty Park, is about a mile away.
Council President Breean Beggs said it’s unrealistic to expect those at the encampment to use the libraries, as many are unwilling to leave the immediate area of the encampment since they do not have any secure place to store their possessions.
“I don’t know why the city is hostile to a cooling tent given that there are 600 very vulnerable people right there,” Beggs said. “Those people are not going to the library. I don’t think the patrons of the library would be excited if 600 people descended upon them from Camp Hope.”
WSDOT confirmed the Spokane City Council has discussed a possible lease agreement to resolve the situation. Beggs said this could involve either the city or Empire Health leasing the property to “legitimize” the cooling tent for WSDOT’s purposes.
Action could possibly take place on a lease at Monday’s City Council meeting, while Beggs said Empire Health has requested additional funding for staffing and security to keep the cooling center operational for another “few weeks,” estimating the cost at $1,800 per day.
Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@spokesman.com.
Nonprofits, advocates urge city officials to rethink policy on cooling centers as heat wave sets in
By Jase Picanso and Mathew Callaghan
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
A group of community members and nonprofits is opening pop-up cooling centers as temperatures in the area soar, claiming in a letter that the city of Spokane’s heat response has been inadequate. The cooling centers like one on Second Avenue and Madison Street are meant to provide water and food for anyone who needs it.
The organizations and individuals who signed the letter urged the city to follow their example of taking action with what they call the Cool Spokane movement. The initiative aims to help both housed and unhoused people have easy access to resources like food, water and shelter.
Among other requests, the letter specifically asks the city to open cooling centers when the temperature reaches 85 degrees or higher for at two days in a row or longer. The city’s threshold for centers is 95 degrees for the same stretch of time.
“The current Spokane human rights ordinances dictating emergency shelter activation requirements have proven inadequate. So many gaps in service have been left unfilled during this year’s heat wave,” the letter sent to mayor Nadine Woodward, City Administrator Johnnie Perkins and the City Council reads.
Other groups, like Spectrum Center, Latinos in Spokane, Spokane Community Against Racism, Mutual Aid Survival Squad, Shalom Ministeries, the MAC movement and many others signed the letter Wednesday.
Kirstin Davis, a spokesperson for the city, said the Spokane City Council sets such policies.
Davis said the Spokane Fire Department received nine calls for heat-related situations Monday through Wednesday.
“We expect that to increase in the next 48 hours, but we aren’t seeing any significant increases at this time, and we are confident that when those increase, we have all of the medical response necessary to take care of them.”
Still, the community saw a need, said Angel Tomeo Sam, an advocate for the Compassion Addiction Treatment nonprofit, who is part of the cooling movement.
“We know in the past the city has struggled to provide for the community during heat waves,” Sam said.
City Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson said she was dismayed at the city’s plan.
“This is just the beginning of the hardest part of the summer,” she said. “So if we think it’s only going to be a week that we have these temperatures ... we are sorely mistaken.”
Wilkerson said she would consider voting in favor of the suggestions from the letter.
“I hadn’t really thought about how hot the blacktop gets ... how it holds the heat in. But when we wrote the ordinance, we didn’t take that into consideration,” she said of the city’s rule on cooling centers. “But I think it’s something we should look at. And that might mean us going back revising the ordinance.”
Other City Council members couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
At the cooling center on Second and Madison on Thursday afternoon, Mariah Villanpando, an advocate for the Health and Justice Recovery alliance, was managing a booth with volunteer Thomas Savage.
If nonprofits and ordinary citizens could come together to help, Villanpando said, who knows what the impact would be “if we actually had the help from the city they said they were going to give.”
“We’re just trying to come together and fill those gaps as much as we can with community volunteers,” Villanpando said.
Savage said he felt compelled to help rather than stay isolated in his own cool environment.
“I’m sitting at home with a nice air conditioner and I know there’s people on the streets that don’t have that same luxury,” Savage said.
In the blazing heat of midday, a man adorned with a cross necklace, sunglasses, red shirt and dark shorts rode up to the cooling center on his bike.
The man, Aaron Mikes, believes it’s great that nonprofits in the Spokane area are providing water and food for all members of the community.
“I don’t like to sit and dwell on things that don’t make me happy,” Mikes said.
Another member of the community who lives in a tent near the cooling station managed by Savage and Villanpando had a simple message for other homeless people: “Be respectful,” Oliver Stewart said. “Clean up your stuff.”
Stewart said he believes the biggest problem the city has with the homeless population is a lot of them do not clean up after themselves.
Stewart also said he believes the mayor’s office is not doing enough to help the homeless.
Georgina Bronowski walked up to the cooling center, saying the refuge “means a lot, really.”
“I’m, like, dying right now … It’s really hot out,” Bronowski said with a bit of a chuckle.
She is concerned not enough people are aware the cooling centers exist.
“They’re stuck wherever they’re at,” she said, “like under the bridges down by the Tiki Lodge, there’s a bunch of people down there that don’t know about this.”
To Bronowski, even something as simple as spreading flyers could help those most at risk.
Advocates said each day hundreds of individuals are already being helped by the resources provided by the Cool Spokane Movement. Team members like Stephanie Ullah from the Health and Justice Recovery Alliance are going to locations like parks to look for homeless people in need struggling in the heat. Ullah offers these individuals food and water, and a ride to a cooling center. She was delivering meal boxes from CHAS to the cooling center at Second and Madison.
“It’s really been a collaborative group effort,” Tomeo Sam said.
Carmen Pacheco-Jones, the executive director of Health and Justice Recovery Alliance, feels that city cooling centers are not good resources for homeless people as they are being stigmatized there.
“It was very disheartening to see the city tell individuals to go to libraries and things like splash pads,” Jones said.
Jones said these people don’t have access to clean clothes, and are right away judged in these locations.
But Davis said in a statement that “people have been accessing available resources through the heat wave whether it’s going to the mall, heading to the libraries, hitting the splash pads early in the morning.”
“People are adjusting their daily behaviors to deal with it,” she said.
Still, Wilkerson expressed frustration with the Woodward administration. She pointed out that the city’s planned homeless shelter on Trent Avenue is still unopened, and city cooling centers are far enough to make some people uncomfortable leaving the large Camp Hope encampment at Second and Ray Street.
“The mayor says, you know, they don’t want to make homelessness comfortable,” she said. “But being out in this type of weather is not comfortable for anybody.”
“I’m frustrated that we haven’t partnered with those folks who are meeting a need for the citizens who live in Spokane,” she added.
S-R reporter Greg Mason contributed to this article. Jase Picanso and Mathew Callaghan are members of The Spokesman-Review’s Teen Journalism Institute, a paid high school summer internship program funded by Bank of America and Innovia Foundation. As the only paid high school newspaper internship in the nation, it is for local students between the ages of 16 and 18 who work directly with senior editors and reporters in the newsroom. All stories written by these interns can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.
Makayla McCray uses sunscreen provided by the popup cooling center on Second Avenue and Madison Street on Thursday afternoon.
JASE PICANSO/
Rental housing shortage in many major U.S. cities
A rental housing shortage in many major U.S. cities has fueled huge rent increases as apartment vacancies have plunged.
To keep up with demand and tackle the shortages, apartment developers need to build more than 4 million units nationwide over the next 13 years, according to a study by the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association.
Currently the U.S. is short by about 600,000 apartments. The demand is even greater for affordable units.
The number of U.S. apartments priced at less than $1,000 a month fell by 4.7 million units between 2015 and 2020, according to industry analysts.
Texas, Florida and California will need 1.5 million additional apartments – 40% of the nationwide building – by 2035, the apartment industry researchers said.
“The lack of available housing is holding our country back,” National Multifamily Housing Council president and CEO Doug Bibby said in a statement.
A slowdown in building during the Great Recession, restrictive zoning laws and rising construction costs have kept apartment building totals below what’s needed in many metro areas.
“Put simply, we do not have enough housing,” National Apartment Association president and CEO Bob Pinnegar said.
How to protect older loved ones from dangers of heat wave
By Molly Wisor
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
With temperatures expected to reach over 100 degrees on Friday, health officials are warning people with underlying health conditions to stay safe from the heat. Last June, 20 people in Spokane County died from the heat during the historic heat wave.
According to Lauren Jenks, assistant secretary of the Washington Department of Health’s Environmental Public Health Division, more people are at risk of fatalities due to the heat than they might think.
“You might be over the age of 50, at more risk of dying from heat, but still feeling young and vibrant,” she said. “A lot of people in that age category don’t consider themselves to be old enough to be at risk, but they are.”
Conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease and age-related illnesses make people’s bodies more vulnerable to extreme heat. The medicines taken to mitigate these symptoms can also put individuals in danger.
“Often, the drugs a person is taking to help protect them can actually put someone at higher risk of developing hyperthermia,” she said. “It would be smart to talk to a doctor about making sure your medication is safe for the heat wave.”
Regardless of medical conditions, air conditioning and cool water are crucial in staying safe from the heat. But often, older people without direct access to those resources are hesitant to leave their homes.
“No one wants to leave behind their belongings, especially for an indeterminate amount of time,” she said.
Any place with adequate air conditioning can be used to cool down.
The city of Spokane has a number of cooling stations in operation, but sometimes the best places aren’t specifically designated for cooling.
“The trick is to find someplace that you feel comfortable going,” she said. “Sometimes that’s just the grocery store, where you can spend some time to cool off.”
For people with older relatives who live alone, Jenks said it’s important to check in on them and make sure they have a plan for dealing with the heat.
“It’s good to stay informed on how your loved one is doing,” she said. “If they’re starting to show signs of stress, we want to make sure we get them into an air-conditioned place.” Molly Wisor is a member of The Spokesman-Review’s Teen Journalism Institute, a paid high school summer internship program funded by Bank of America and Innovia Foundation. As the only paid high school newspaper internship in the nation, it is for local students between the ages of 16 and 18 who work directly with senior editors and reporters in the newsroom. All stories written by these interns can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.
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KXLY
Posted: July 28, 2022 7:04 PM Updated: July 28, 2022 9:17 PM by Brontë Sorotsky
SPOKANE, Wash. — Local organizations are calling on the city of Spokane to do more to get essentials like water bottles, food and more cooling locations to protect people in need from heat-related injuries.
In a letter addressed to local officials, the coalition “Cool Spokane” asks the city to increase these services.
The coalition is made up of local organizations, taking matters into their own hands while they call on the city to do more to help those who can’t escape the heat.
This week they’ve been setting up cooling stations, using them to get folks supplies like food, water and some relief from the heat.
“People die in inclement weather and although we have seen the city make efforts it’s just not enough, it’s absolutely not enough,” said Angel Tomeo Sam, with the organization “Compassionate Addiction Treatment”.
Tomeo said the city can do more.
“There’s a couple of us who work with the homeless people here in Spokane, and we saw the upcoming heat wave and thought ‘what else can we do?,'” Tomeo said. “Because the city in the past has really been slow in reacting…we just decided ‘lets put up some cooling centers.”
Cool Spokane sent a letter to the Mayor, city council, and others, outlining the changes they’d like the city to make to prevent any heat-related injuries. Tomeo said they haven’t heard back.
“We haven’t heard back yet, we are and kinda have been in contact with our city council members, as coalition members many of us work with city government on a daily basis,” said Tomeo.
Volunteers at their pop-up cooling stations say seeing people exposed to the extreme heat is concerning.
“The biggest concern is health,” said Mariah Villanpando, a volunteer with the Health and Justice recovery alliance.
“We know that people could lose their lives in these extreme conditions.”
Right now, they plan on keeping these stations up until the heat dies down.