With Irma and power failure, Miami feels deadly heat
MIAMI, Florida — Miami is a city that lives on air conditioning. When it fails, people can die.
After Hurricane Irma knocked down power lines and disconnected the cooling system at a nursing home north of Miami this month, 11 residents perished when temperatures inside soared.
Florida Governor Rick Scott blamed management at the facility for allowing patients to endure sweltering conditions as the heat index — a measure of combined heat and humidity — passed 38 C.
But public outrage has also targeted the local utility company for not restoring electricity fast enough, and the city for not ordering and assisting with an evacuation.
In this often sweltering southern city, widespread use of air conditioning makes it easy to overlook the growing risks of extreme heat. But the risks are there — and they can be just one power failure away.
Around the world, a surge in extreme weather events, including storms, floods and droughts, has focused attention on the risks associated with global warming.
But one of the biggest threats — and a particularly serious one for already hot countries and cities — is worsening heat waves, which remain an underestimated risk, experts say.
The number of extreme heat days, when the heat index is above 40.6 C, is expected to jump to 126 a year by 2030 and 151 by 2050 in Miami, according to a study by Climate Central, a US nonprofit science and media organization.
In 2000, Miami saw just 24 such extreme heat days, the study noted.
Miami’s residents — particularly those who spend a lot of time outside — say they’re noticing the difference already.
“I’ve been here all my life and working in construction, and I can tell you: it’s getting hotter every year,” said Rai Finalet, as he moved barriers along Little Havana’s Flagler Street, which is being repaved.
In steamy Florida, high humidity makes it harder for sweat to evaporate, preventing the body from cooling off. That’s what can cause heat exhaustion and potentially deadly heat stroke — and what
I’ve been here all my life and working in construction, and I can tell you: it’s getting hotter every year.”
Rai Finalet,
have contributed to the deaths at the nursing home.
Laurence Kalkstein, a climatology professor at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, said the incident highlights the risk that heat poses for Miami — and for many more cities.
“What we all need to realize is that these excessive heat events will happen more and more often, all over the world, and we all need to be more aware of the potential health impacts,” he said.