Rolling blackouts move inland amid heat wave× deaths reported
SPOKANE, Wash.— The unprecedented Northwest U.S. heat wave that slammed Seattle and Portland, Ore., moved inland Tuesday — prompting an electrical utility in Spokane to resume rolling blackouts amid heavy power demand.
Officials said more than a halfdozen deaths in Washington and Oregon may be tied to the intense heat that began late last week.
The dangerous weather that gave Seattle and Portland consecutive days of record high temperatures exceeding 100 degrees was expected to ease in those cities. But inland Spokane saw temperatures spike.
The National Weather Service said the mercury reached 109 in Spokane— the highest temperature ever recorded there.
About 9,300 utility customers in Spokane lost power on Monday and the company said more planned blackouts began on Tuesday afternoon in the city of about 220,000 people.
“We try to limit outages to one hour per customer,” said Heather Rosentrater, Avista Utilities vice president for energy delivery.
She said about 2,00 customers were without power as of shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday, mostly on the north side of the city, and those customers had been alerted about the planned outage. About 21,000 customers were warned Tuesday morning that they might experience an outage, she said.
Avista had to implement deliberate blackouts on Monday because “the electric system experienced a new peak demand, and the strain of the high temperatures impacted the system,” said company presidentDennis Vermillion.
The United Farm Workers urged Washington ov. Jay Inslee to immediately issue emergency heat standards protecting all farm and other outdoor workers in the state with a strong agricultural sector. The state’s current heat standards fall short of safeguards the UFW first won in California in 2005 that have prevented deaths and illnesses from heat stroke, the union said in a statement.
Unlike workers in California, Washington state farm workers do not have the right to work shade and breaks amid extreme temperatures.
“I was off today so I was helping distribute water and information to the cherry harvesters,” said Martha Acevedo, a wine grape worker from Sunnyside, Wash., said in a union statement. “They were struggling. No shade, not even cold water.”
Seattle was cooler Tuesday with temperatures expected to reach about 90 after registering 108 degrees on Monday — well above Sunday’s alltime high of 10. Portland reached 116 after hitting records of 108 on Saturday and 112 on Sunday.
President Biden, during an infrastructure speech in Wisconsin, took note of the Northwest as he spoke about the need to be prepared for extreme weather.
“Anybody ever believe you’d turn on the news and see it’s 116 degrees in Portland, OregonAE 116 degrees,” the president said, working in a dig at those who cast doubt on the reality of climate change. “But don’t worry — there is no global warming because it’s just a figment of our imaginations.”
The heat wave was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and worsened by humancaused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense.