PORTLAND, Ore. — Volunteers scrambled to hand out water, portable fans, popsicles and information about cooling shelters Thursday to homeless people living in isolated encampments on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, as the Pacific Northwest sweated through a heat wave gripping the normally temperate region.
Authorities trying to provide relief to the vulnerable, including low-income older people and those living outdoors, are mindful of a record-shattering heat wave in late June that killed hundreds in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia when the thermometer went as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit.
In Portland, temperatures reached 102 F by late afternoon, and more heat was expected Friday. It was hotter than Phoenix, where the high in the desert city was a below-normal 100 F. In Seattle, highs were in the 90s in a region where many don’t have air conditioning. In Bellingham, Washington, on Thursday the high hit 100 F for the first time on record.
Scorching weather also hit other parts of the U.S. this week. The National Weather Service said heat advisories and warnings are in effect from the Midwest to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic through at least Friday.
And in Michigan, heavy rains brought flooding, leaving nearly 1 million homes and businesses without power at one point Thursday in the hot weather.
In Portland, a nonprofit group that serves the homeless and those with mental illness used three large vans to transport water and other cooling items to homeless encampments along the Columbia River on the eastern outskirts of the city.
The effort was important because people experiencing homelessness are often reluctant to go to cooling centers, said Kim James, director of homeless and housing support for Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare.
Scott Zalitis, who was shirtless in the heat, gorged himself on lime-green popsicles handed out by the group and told volunteers that the temperature at his campsite reached 105 F the day before.
A huge cooler full of food spoiled when all the ice melted and he couldn’t find any more to buy.