Louisiana’s record-breaking summer has had fatal consequences. Sixteen people in the state died in June and July from heat-related causes, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
Six of those deaths were in June, and 10 were in July, said Kevin Litten, the health department’s press secretary. Those two months alone have already surpassed the state’s average of 10 heat-related deaths a year from 2010 to 2020, according to a 2023 state analysis.
On top of that, Louisiana has already shattered its annual average for heat-caused emergency department visits. From April 1 to July 29, there were 3,305 visits, compared to 10-year annual average of 2,700, said Dr. Alicia Van Doren, a preventive medicine physician working with the health department on tracking heat injuries and deaths.
She attributes these high numbers to record-temperatures driven by climate change.
“It truly is a public health problem,” Van Doren said.
As concerning as those numbers are, “all of this is an undercount,” she said. That’s because exposure to heat doesn’t always end up in medical charts or death records.
The public health problem is only getting a minimal public response at the moment. The city has struggled to open public pools and we've already noted they can barely keep the air conditioning on. Also at the beginning of summer, there was some discussion about getting some public "splash pads" that have been popular in other cities put into operation here. Other ideas were floated, including "reducing vehicular traffic" although that's not going in the right direction either, apparently.
Otherwise, see this press release for a list of safety tips and "cooling centers" where the public can go and find relief in the air conditioning... usually.
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