Actual time in phoenix full#

The city has been ordered to clear this area, known as “The Zone,” and officials have asked for more time to ensure people living here are provided with somewhere to go. But the heat,” he said, “– it’s the killer.” “I am pretty tough but these last few days are everything I can handle.” Life on this block is filled with danger and violence and the lure of drugs to dull the pain is constant, only adding to the strain. Before securing his own stash of water, he alerted the workers that a woman in a nearby tent had suffered a stroke and was in need of help. He knows people who have already lost their lives to the extreme conditions and is concerned their numbers will grow. Michael Shaw, a 49-year-old encampment resident, rings a soaking towel over his head and neck, lamenting the weekend heat that lies ahead. Shade is sparse and the stale air is stifling as nurses cart wagons of refillable water jugs through the tents, offering them to inhabitants. It’s early afternoon and the cloud cover has burned off, leaving sunlight to cook the sidewalks which can reach temperatures of 160F (71.1C). Michael Shaw lives at an encampment in Phoenix where residents are grappling with daily temperatures of 110F and above.

Actual time in phoenix full#

Indigenous people, who accounted for 8% of deaths, are only 2.9% of the population.Īt the homeless encampment, a line is forming at a booth where Arizona State University nursing students have joined the city workers to distribute coolers full of water bottles, wet towels and information to the hundreds of tents sprawling along the streets just steps from the city center. Only 6.8% of Maricopa’s population is Black, but 11% of heat-related fatalities were Black people. The county’s statistics also show the disparities run along racial lines. In 78% of cases, AC units were present but not functioning. Of the people who died indoors, all of them were living in homes and buildings that weren’t cooled. Fifty-six percent of those who succumbed to the heat last year in Maricopa county, where Phoenix is located, were unhoused. Heat, a quiet killer and one of the world’s deadliest disasters, takes an unequal toll. More people are making Phoenix their home even as the risks rise and a growing population is putting strain on housing and water – two resources that help dull the strain of stifling heat – both resources in short supply. Staying one step ahead has proved a difficult – and deadly – challenge. The climate crisis is upping the stakes, with temperatures only expected to surge further in the coming years. The city was the first in the country to fund a dedicated heat department in 2021, which has launched dozens of programs with ambitious goals, including planting more trees, opening cooling centers and ensuring people across the region have working air-conditioning units.ĭespite the work, the numbers of heat-related fatalities have swelled dramatically in recent years, culminating in a record 425 lives lost last year. Volunteers with city of Phoenix’s heat response team hand out water and other supplies at an encampment during the heatwave. “We might have flash floods but heat is our issue.” “This is Arizona’s natural disaster,” Litwin said. On Wednesday, she and a crew of city workers and volunteers set up a booth at a sprawling homeless encampment to hand out cold water bottles, hygiene kits and other resources that, for those living on the streets, could potentially mean the difference between life and death. Litwin and her team are tasked with aiding the city’s most vulnerable during the city’s brutally hot months, a season that now stretches from April to September. “Phoenix has always been hot,” said Michelle Litwin, the city’s heat response program manager.

If the heatwave continues as predicted, Phoenix will have endured an 18-day stretch of temperatures above 110F (43.3C) by Tuesday. The city is on track to break a grim milestone. But by day 12 of a vicious heatwave that’s sent temperatures soaring into triple digits, with little relief overnight, limits are being tested – and it’s only going to get hotter. Arizona’s capital city is nicknamed “Valley of the Sun”, and residents are used to scorching heat.