HEAT WAVE DEATH TOLL SOARS
54 DEAD IN QUEBEC AFTER PROVINCE ENDURES WEEK OF EXTREME TEMPERATURES
Aweek-long heat wave that has hit Quebec has claimed the lives of at least 54 people. Despite much-needed cooler weather ahead, public health officials said they were still on high alert.
The new death toll, up from 33 the day before, was confirmed by a press attaché for Lucie Charlebois, the provincial minister for public health.
A spokesperson for Santé Montréal confirmed that, as of Friday morning, 28 deaths in the city may have been related to the extreme heat. The others occurred in the Eastern Townships (9), Mauricie (7), Montérégie (6), Quebec City/Chaudière-Appalaches (1), Lanaudière (1), Laurentians (1) and Laval (1).
Stefan Overhoff, chief operating officer at Urgences-sante ambulance service, says people who’ve endured the heat for several days could still be susceptible to health problems.
Most of those who died were believed to have been suffered some from health problem, mental illness, or did not have air conditioning.
Montreal’s civil protection agency was also going door-to-door checking on vulnerable people.
“If you’re alone at home, don’t stay alone,” said Charlebois.
Dr. David Kaiser, a specialist with the public health department, explained that physicians and first responders who declare deaths look for one of two things when determining whether they’re potentially heat-related.
The first indicator would be someone presenting symptoms of heat stroke before death or an elevated body temperature. Deaths of those types, however, are less common, he said, counting for only one or two of the 28 deaths in Montreal over the last week.
The majority of deaths, Kaiser said, have been cases of someone dying of an underlying conditions, such as diabetes, within a hot environment at home. None of the 28 deaths have occurred in hospitals or long-term care facilities, he specified.
Kaiser said that the individuals who have died due to heat are identified in a variety of ways. Some deaths are discovered more quickly, after an individual does not come down from their room in a residence for breakfast, whereas others take longer, such as cases in which a person is socially isolated, he said.
Environment Canada lifted the week-old heat warning and day-old storm watch for the Montreal area early Friday.
The forecast for Friday calls for a high of 25 C and a humidex of 31 C. The temperature is expected to drop to 13 C Friday night.
The last time Montreal saw a seven-day heat wave with temperatures above 30 C was in 1973, according to meteorologist Alexandre Parent. He said such extreme weather had a tendency to occur every 20 years.
However, the weather station at McGill University’s downtown campus has never picked up more than five consecutive days of weather over 33 C in its 147 years of operation, making this heat wave a first.
The cumulative effect of the prolonged heat, during which humidex levels reached up to 40 C, may still impact residents, said Overhoff.
Throughout the last week, the number of calls to emergency services jumped by about 30 per cent, Overhoff said, from 1,000 calls a day to anywhere between 1,200 to 1,350 interventions.
“Today, we’re not expecting a decrease in the number of transports,” Overhoff said.
Kaiser explained that is because it can take longer for someone who lives with a pre-existing condition to return to their regular temperature after several consecutive days in the extreme heat.
“Their body gradually just gets overwhelmed, so the heat stress just adds to the underlying disease,” he said. “That will take a few days of more normal temperatures to get back to normal.”
Santé Montréal director Mylène Drouin confirmed on Twitter that the city will be continuing its door-todoor checks on vulnerable residents.
The city’s heat intervention plan will remain in place until the city indicates otherwise, according to Marilyne Laroche, a spokesperson for the city of Montreal.
The New York Times reported that local residents had sought refuge in park fountains or remained inside in air-conditioned homes or offices.
Home appliance stores, said the paper, had been mobbed with residents trying to buy air-conditioners, only to discover that all the units were sold out.