The New York Times
Summary
Extreme heat can bring on some extremely dangerous feedback loops for American hospitals and clinics.
The good news is that there are some practical fixes.
The time to prepare is now. Because the heat is likely to get worse. Much worse. Quite soon.
Researchers this week laid out the possibility of the compounding health risks. They tried to divine what could happen if a bad heat wave in a hot city coincided with overloaded electricity grids, leading to blackouts for many days.
Using data from previous heat waves, they modeled the consequences of multiday blackouts amid extreme heat. They concluded that in Phoenix, a scorching desert city where people depend on air-conditioning throughout the summer, such conditions could send an estimated 789,600 people to the emergency room for heat-related illnesses. That’s nearly half the population. The city has only 3,000 emergency room beds. (You can read the story here.)
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