It’s bad enough that Californians are still suffering from the effects of a waning pandemic, but wildfire season is already in progress amid record-high temperatures. According to USA Today, at least 11 states in the Western U.S. reported triple-digit temperatures last week with the temperatures ranging from 86 to 102 during the weekend, with more extremely hot days to come.
We still wonder why the County of Lake has offered little relief during these ongoing heat waves to its most vulnerable residents for at least two years running: Among them the seniors who have endured over a year of COVID-related closures to the facilities normally open to them, the countywide senior centers.
We are cognizant of the fact that the pandemic made it more difficult and risky for both residents and county personnel to set up and staff facilities. County officials responded to our concerns last year stating that often, those most vulnerable still chose to shelter-in-place and endure the heat, “because they are most comfortable at home, and out of concern a setting that encourages gathering of people, like a cooling center, could carry greater risks, despite precautions taken.” and added that there was no identified funding source to cover the cost of such centers.
Maybe it’s time to allocate some? Surely if the County of Lake is able to materialize funding whenever the need is dire such as in the case of defending employees from multiple lawsuits, or whenever a no-bid contract is in order for all sorts of other emergencies, then a plan could be made to provide relief to the most vulnerable segment of our population.
In addition, it seems as though the COVID risk is minimal because for one part, a large part of the senior population has already been fully vaccinated, with nearly half of county residents already fully inoculated, and for another, quite possibly as a result of the ramped up vaccination efforts, cases in the county are at a low tally of 22 overall cases with no new cases reported since June 14 and a positivity rate of 2.7 percent.
We are aware that the county makes an effort to contact and check up on vulnerable residents like those with grave medical conditions such as heart ailments which are put at risk during extreme temperatures through programs like Meals on Wheels, but we believe it would not be too difficult to set up cooling facilities in addition to the county libraries which were the only places made available to residents during the pandemic a year ago. District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon demonstrated two years ago how quickly a facility could be set up to address the dangers of extreme weather when the Middletown Senior Center was used to serve as an overnight warming center in the winter of 2019, for example.
If staffing is the primary hold up, we are sure that the non-profits like NCO and others are a resource which could be tapped to provide at least some temporary relief during the extreme weather events with COVID precautions in place to safeguard both staff and the public.
It should not take the threat of a PG&E power shut off event for more cooling facilities to be established countywide. By the way, speaking of the embattled utility, it has made information about cooling centers available throughout Northern California including Shasta, Kern and El Dorado Counties, among others, on their website. Lake County’s information is not included in the list found online at https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/heat/Designated-Cooling-Center-Locations.pdf
And we could not find this information on the county website either, although there are tips to “cool off” from last year when Dr. Pace was at the helm of the Public Health Department. At the very least, we believe residents should be made more aware of their options via the county’s social media outlets and or the Office of Emergency Services during sweltering dangerous conditions.
—The Editorial Board, Lake County Record-Bee
