The Baltimore City Health Department Thursday announced plans to establish cooling centers throughout the city and to educate residents about the health risks posed by summer heat.
“Weather can be a silent killer,” Joshua Sharfstein, commissioner of the city health department, said at the Waxter Center for Senior Citizens. “Extreme heat can push fragile people over the edge.”
The Health Department, the Commission on Aging and Retirement Education and the city?s fire and police departments are cooperating to form the Code Red Heat Alert and Energy Assistance Initiative.
On days the National Weather Service declares a heat advisory, the health commissioner will declare a code red heat alert day. Then the housing department and the commission on aging will open 10 cooling centers around the city to provide air conditioning, water and other assistance to those suffering from the heat.
The energy assistance initiative, the second part of the alert system, provides for a computer database of low-income families that are at a greater health risk during the summer. This will include information on residents at risk of losing energy in their homes or otherwise suffering from the heat.
“The city will be able to help people more than ever before,” said Reginald Scriber, deputy commissioner of the Housing Commission.
Although the city is working hard to help alleviate health risks for older residents during the summer, some members of the Waxter Center for Senior Citizens responded with mixed reviews.
“Once I go inside I don?t come outside again,” said Naomi Sanders, 82, of Baltimore City. “I have central air in my home, but I did not hear today how this program would help me.” Sanders said she hopes there will be more meetings with the health department in which senior citizens can participate in order to voice their concerns about the heat.
