This past weekend was a scorcher, with the whole East Coast and parts of central US hitting record temperatures. Baltimore saw a staggering heat index of 122 degrees on Saturday evening, and they aren’t the only ones in triple digits.
While this heatwave had been predicted for a while leading up to the weekend, it is the first major heatwave of the summer, catching many off guard. At least six have died directly due to the intense heat.
Saturday, July 20th, Bettye Richmond, 71, and James Alighire, 54, died due to the intense heat the city is experiencing. The actual temperature in the city on Saturday was 97 degrees, which does not take into account the ‘real feel’, or how hot it feels to those in it. On the 19th, the actual temperature was 95 degrees.
Alighire died just before 4 pm at Swedish Covenant Hospital, and Richmond died just before 10 PM in a private residence on the West Side of Chicago.
Both deaths are attributed to ‘coronary atherosclerosis’, which is essentially a heart attack, but the corner for the victims said that the stress of the heat directly contributed to their deaths.
Maryland officials were less forthcoming about the information of the diseased, but we know that a man from Prince George’s County between the ages of 18-44 died, as well as a woman from Worcester County between the ages of 45-64.
Two other deaths include a man from Baltimore City between the ages of 45-64, and a woman from Anne Arundel County who was older than 65 when she died.
Over 4,500 DC metro area residents were out of power over the weekend, and Northern Virginia saw outages for more than 14,500 of their own residents. The area experienced storms in the heat that contributed, and they are expected to see flash floods before the power gets restored completely.
New York City is also being affected by heat-related power outages due to the intense use the power grid is seeing. With everyone blasting their AC and staying indoors, it is overloading aging systems.
In lighter news, the police in Braintree, Massachusetts asked their residents to hold off committing any major crimes until the heatwave passes. They shared their request on Facebook, which went viral almost immediately.
They described those willing to commit crimes in this weather as ‘next level henchmen status’.
