Get used to killer heat waves, CDC warns

By Maggie Fox, Senior Writer, NBC News

Think last summer was bad? You better get used to it, federal health officials warned Thursday. Climate change means hotter summers and more intense storms that could knock power out for days -- and kill people.

New data on heat-related deaths suggest that public health officials have been underestimating them, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. It’s an especially important message as summers get longer and hotter due to climate change, and as storms that can cause widespread blackouts become more common and more intense.

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I hope it is not too hot I was in Chicago last year and damn it was unreal how hot it was. We went to a small fair and it was just too hot. I really feel for all the construction workers and such.

I'm glad I'm not a roofer!

I have my little Honda generator in tip top shape. It is one of the quiet ones and I love it.

How about the road crews paving and working with Hot asphalt and tar? Ship yard work is bad enough....

...or dudes that crawl into hot attics wading through piles of insulation?

I don't see how those people that work in the big steel mils can do that either.

We built some ferry's for South Carolinia.. As luck would have it, we had to do the engine room and below deck work in July and August. Sometimes it is not too bad because if the boat is big enough you can get a blower or some fans to help. But these were small and every one was all over each other..Many days it was over 140 degrees. Sure made for a long day. Jacket, gloves and a hat doesn't help very much. LOL

I'm a "sweat hog" and my clothes get drenched. There had better be plenty of water available, or I'd dehydrate quickly.

Eric wrote:

I'm glad I'm not a roofer!

I have my little Honda generator in tip top shape. It is one of the quiet ones and I love it.

We have a great generator that is part of hubby's welding machine. We simply back it up to the house and go for it. I'm amazed at what that generator can do!

It's loud, though. However, all the other generators in my neighborhood are loud, so none of us complain.

When I was working ER I would get so upset because of the heat related strokes and deaths among the poor elderly people. Most could not afford A/C and Gulf Power is damn sure not going to help....they will allow partial payment but no reduced rates for seniors.

Because of where these people lived they feared for their safety....all windows and doors were kept closed and locked and so many would just have a small fan to use....I learned after Ivan you can have 3-4 fans blowing on you and it does not help.

So sad,Joani........my first job was on an angel press.......have any idea what that is?

Well, it's a machine in a knitting mill that "steams" the crap out of you and the sweaters in .....wait, the press room.

The press room runs about 120 and the angel press runs it up another 40 degrees.

There were women there who had worked it their entire lives...I handled it about 2 months.

God love our seniors ...you would think our country could help them more.

Yes, this ultra conservative thinks there should be more $$$ spent on the elderly.

Long time Long ago. I worked for Letourneu in Texas. We worked in these big domes. Back then they were making 500 lb bombs. Just the steel part we shipped them some where else to be loaded and the fuses installed. They were made of very heavy wall Pipe. They cut the pipe to length then placed the ends in a large furnace. The furnace looked like something from your worse nightmare. A large wall of holes that opened into a amazedly hot fire. It looked like pictures of hell. After they placed the pipe in the hole they would pull them out and into a large press that hammered them into the conical bomb shape. The noise and heat was beyond description. Not being racist but only Black people could handle the heat, I guess, they were the only ones who worked in that area. They worked 20 minute shifts 20 minutes on 30 minutes off. One day a Jib crane broke and they sent 2 of us to go fix it.
I almost made it to when the crane was before I started to pass out. All I remember is 2 BIG black guys grabbed me and carried me outside. They stuffed some ice down my shirt and poured cool water over my head and upper body. I have no idea how they were able to work in the area. Back then there were not many of the Osha law to protect workers. Sometimes in the summers I think of those guys. They quit making bombs a couple of years after that. They made 1,000s, and 1,000s of the damn things. I did not work there long. I got to thinking about what we were making and it got to me, not to mention it was just too damn Hot LOL

Storm and Hallmark....years ago in industry where the temps were really high...they had stations with water and salt tablets.

You are correct. Every one ate salt pills like candy.

Pre-Gator-ade.

Tweren't none in my knitting mill!

We do but to much needless money is spent while the elderly suffer.

You want a soap-box? My son in law was speaking with a client and during the conversation she said something and all he understood was the word Obama. He asked her to repeat what she said....she answered with I'll call you on my Obama phone next week. She said she didn't want use her regular cell phone so he would have to wait until next week when she got her monthly free minutes. He asked her what an Obama phone was....and she said my free phone and I get free minutes the first of every month.

I worked for a local electrical contractor for a while when Erin and Opal were hitting us. Some of the attics with 3-4 feet of insulation were 170 degrees. After 15 minutes, we would have to get down to cool off before passing out. It was routine to go outside, spray yourself with a garden hose, then drink 1-2 quarts of Gatorade, then get ready to go back into the attic to finish the job. I quit after the first summer..

It was 102 here yesterday, which is as hot as I can ever remember it being. As my dad has always said, my internal thermostat is out of whack and I am usually hot anyways, so I thought I was going to frigging melt yesterday. It's cooler today and will be back to normal temperatures tomorrow (about 75), thank god.

Being out of whack, do you give off a lot of body heat?? I am NOT being bad.. I usually give off a lot of heat except for my feet.. LOL

riceme wrote:

It was 102 here yesterday, which is as hot as I can ever remember it being. As my dad has always said, my internal thermostat is out of whack and I am usually hot anyways, so I thought I was going to frigging melt yesterday. It's cooler today and will be back to normal temperatures tomorrow (about 75), thank god.

Damn, that is HOT. Early June, too. How is the humidity?

They say it doesn't count if it is DRY heat. Well, it is dry in my oven and it gets hot as hell in there

It is extremely dry here and the wind usually blows like hell, so 102 does not feel nearly as hot to me here as 85 would in Pensacola. I seriously thought I was going to die from the heat when I lived there... I am not built for that kind of heat & humidity. I like it cold.

It was 117 in Needles yesterday, which is on the Arizona border. Now THAT is hot.

It is summer in this part of the world.  It will get hot, always has.  In the winter months, it tends to cool down, always has.  Climate will change, always has.  It ain't our fault.


Ice age?  Well, that was probably the Republicans, but the other stuff is natural and beyond our control.

hallmarkgrad wrote:

How about the road crews paving and working with Hot asphalt and tar?  Ship yard work is bad enough....

EXACTLY, HG!! One of my ex-boyfriends in the Pensacola area whom I dated after my divorce is a part-time professional fisherman works in construction building Home Depots, Targets etc. and... highways, which he swears is the absolute most miserable work on the planet, and I do not doubt him for one moment. He had horror stories about the crap he went through with his crews on road construction sites, aside from the building construction sites, which were bad enough in the Gulf Coast heat and humidity! Asphalt is *HOT* when you lay it... NOT a nice job. Not at ALL. And, for anyone who is not "in the know," you gotta lay asphalt in warm weather... it doesn't do to lay it in cold weather. UGH!  

I worked in the Pensacola Paper Mill one summer, taking different jobs so guys could take vacations.  The hottest job I had there was called "7th hand".  

Paper slurry flows onto a fine screen belt and enters a drying machine where it is supported by an undulating fabric belt.  It is heated to dry off moisture as it passes through this area.  It seemed to me that this machine was 50 yards long and had structures around it like a roof to hold in the heat.  The main roof was probably 50 feet higher.  The paper started out at 97% water and came off the machine at about 7% water.  There were two parallel machines in this one building.  

It was hot and humid as hell in there during the summer. When paper broke, it started piling up on the floor below and you had to RUN your butt off to get the paper rethreaded back onto the drying belt machine.

I also worked as a "brokebeaterman" on the lower floor.  When the paper broke and started piling up, my job was to make damn sure it didn't pile up high enough to get sucked back into the drying belts.  My ass would have been grass if that had happened!  We even used towmotors to ram piles of paper out of the way.