LAKE COUNTY>> Despite extended triple digit temperatures and some areas breaking records for excessive heat, options to access cooling centers for Lake County residents during the ongoing heatwave have considerably diminished as of July 9, officials noted.
“The Twin Pine location (Middletown) was a PG&E Community Resource Center (CRC). As of this morning (Press time on Wednesday), no PG&E CRCs were open,” Matthew Rothstein Lake County chief county deputy administrative officer said. He offered the following as a reference:
https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/ways-we-can-help/
A PG&E spokesperson (Jeff Smith) also told this newspaper Wednesday that he could not provide a head count for how many people used the CSR in Middletown last week, but added that PG&E usually makes the determination on whether to keep the cooling stations open based on whether it is being utilized.
He went on to say that if there were no PSPS or significant outages in the area, and if the impact was not deemed too severe, that the utility makes the call on whether to keep the CSR open. The CSR at Twin Pine folded on Friday July 5, despite earlier indications that it would be open through at least Monday of this week.
“This link lists hours for the County’s Peer Support Centers and Library locations. Each of those continues to provide an opportunity to beat the heat this week, during normal business hours,” noted Rothstein, listing the following link;
https://lakecountyca.gov/1448/Lake-Co-Response
Leah Sautelet, Office of Emergency Services, Emergency Services Manager advised residents to obtain information about cooling options they can visit with the County’s site, https://Ready.LakeCountyCA.gov.
“The County does not routinely operate cooling centers and instead employs cooling options that include public facilities open during normal business hours, such as public libraries and Behavioral Health Peer Support Centers,” she said in an email. In light of the limitations associated with opening dedicated cooling centers, the county is exploring options for facility upgrades and is actively collaborating with non-governmental organizations to better serve the public,” she also pointed out.
Officials did not elaborate on what these limitations are, whether they involved staffing challenges, budgetary limitations, or both, but Sautelet noted as a result of months of planning and collaboration, the Community Organizations Against Disaster (COAD) resilience hub workgroup was able to active during the heat event over the week of July 1 through July 5, 2024, for the first time. The COAD activation was in response to the forecasted Heat Risk which included extreme and temperatures over 100 degrees with overnight lows not dropping under 75 degrees. In addition to the County’s options, seven Resilience Hub partners successfully opened Resilience Centers for cooling. These centers had operated for four to six hours daily, at seven different locations, providing welcomed relief during the hottest parts of each day.
Sautelet cautioned information is updated in as timely of a manner as possible but may not be real-time during an emergency. “Ensure that you are registered to receive LakeCoAlerts for timely emergency information,” she advised.
The National Weather Service’s (NWS’) Eureka Office had issued an Excessive Heat Warning and had advised increased risk of heat-related illness is expected with the highest temperatures (100 – 110 degrees in some portions of Lake County) beginning Tuesday, July 2, 2024, and continuing throughout the weekend. “With high temperatures expected to persist throughout the week and lows hovering around 70 degrees, the public is encouraged to take precautions to stay safe,” Sautelet said.
While the County of Lake does not routinely open official extreme weather centers, public facilities had been open across the county up through July 8. “These County operated facilities operate with routine hours and are excellent cooling/warming options,” she added.
County staff, in coordination with local NGOs, were actively working to increase capacity of local facilities through the establishment of Community Resilience Centers or the addition of back-up power to current facilities. As the result of this process, several non-governmental organizations were open for the first time in this capacity, in response to elevated temperatures last week.
Additionally, the NGO, Cobb Mountain Lions Club manned the Little Red School House facility in Cobb which through efforts of volunteers, had remained open afternoons through Monday of this week. Its board was expected to vote on possibly extending hours at an evening meeting Tuesday, according to member Robert Stark, but no further information was obtained at press time. According to a schedule provided by the OES, the NGO Lucerne Alpine Senior Center would be open this week at 3985 Country Club Dr, Lucerne, (707) 274-877.
