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TDRC Media Releases |
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July 28, 2002 Heat
Alert Called As
of 8 pm tonight the City of Toronto had only called a Heat Alert.
This means that warnings such as the above are issued but NO Cooling
Centres are opened for homeless people or other people vulnerable to heat
injury, such as people on psychiatric medications. Cooling centers are
only opened when the City increases the alert to a Heat Emergency.
When will that happen? Today’s heat was recorded to equate to mid 40
degrees with the humidity (Weather Channel). City officials saw fit to issue a press release on July 26 warning Pilgrims of the potentially hot weekend and in fact numerous heat emergencies were treated at Downsview Park today. As Cathy Crowe, street nurse says: “It’s too bad the city doesn’t care quite so much for their own citizens. Imagine the City issuing a warning like they did to the Pilgrims that urged them to carry at least 1.5 litres of water with them and to reassure them that there would be an unprecedented level of medical coverage should they become ill. Tonight I learned that the Red Cross had one paramedic prepared to respond. The only cooling place they could tell people to go to was a shopping centre.” For more information, contact TDRC at tdrc@tdrc.net -30- |