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Adams: ‘This heat is not normal’
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials warned at a press conference at the city’s Emergency Management Headquarters on Monday that New York City will be blasted with heat indexes of up to 102 degrees Fahrenheit through Wednesday.
“This heat is not normal, climate change is here, and it’s a real and present danger if you are not prepared,” he told reporters. Adams said the city’s “whole apparatus” is coordinating together to handle the latest heat wave, including MTA, Con Edison, Health + Hospitals and Emergency Management. More than 500 cooling centers, many in libraries and some pet-friendly, will be open. (Find a center at finder.nyc.gov/coolingcenters, or call 311.)
The city has extended hours at its Olympic- and intermediate-sized public pools, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Beaches will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, but officials warned residents to swim only when a lifeguard is on duty, as dangerous tide conditions persist. Additional city staff will be at the beaches, including extra drone support at Rockaway.
To help protect the power grid, NYC will be reducing energy consumption at 600 city-owned buildings, the mayor said.
Heat is breaking all records
The heads of city agencies warned residents to take the heat warnings seriously.
“You’ll really start feeling it tomorrow [Tuesday],” Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol said. “The heat index is predicted to hit approximately 102 or 38.8 degrees Celsius [Tuesday], and 100 degrees or 37.7 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.” There will be little respite from the heat overnight.
This year’s heat has broken all records, he said. “Since June 1st, nearly 75% of daily max temps in Central Park were above normal. That’s this year alone.” On top of the heat, an Air Quality Index (AQI) warning is in place for sensitive groups.
Emergency Management is working with city health agencies and FDNY to keep track of what’s happening around the city, Iscol said. “These agencies are doing things like activating a code red at DSS to take care of our homeless population … If an individual who appears to be homeless and [needs] to get out of the heat, please call 311. If it’s an emergency, you can call 911.”
Con Ed activates emergency response center
James Brennan, Con Ed’s VP of Electric Operations said the company activated its corporate emergency response center Monday morning. “That allows us to monitor the system closely, coordinate with our regional control centers, all of our field crews, and all of our partners here in government to ensure we are responding safely and efficiently to customer needs,” he said.
Brennan said Con Ed carries out drills for extreme events throughout the year and was confident the system was ready, but acknowledged that this level of heat, humidity and power usage for air conditioning would stress the grid.
“Every degree you can raise your thermostat saves costs, reduces impact to the environment, and further reduces stress on the grid,” Brennan said.
People should also shift usage of high-energy appliances such as laundry machines, dryers and dishwashers to after 10 p.m. or before 2 p.m. to reduce peak demand, and turn off the AC when nobody’s home (unless you have pets).
Over the past week, hundreds of Con Edison customers, mainly in Brooklyn, Queens and to a lesser extent, the Bronx, have coped with fluctuating power outages. In most cases Con Edison has been able to get the power back on within the day.
People should plan in advance for this possibility, and have water and food that does not require cooking on hand.
No MTA ‘meltdown’
Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the agency is trying to reduce its power consumption where it can. MTA will also have heat patrols “proactively increasing track inspections,” because heat can have an impact on track alignment. Extra staff will be stationed at key locations to allow a quick response if emergency conditions develop.
The good news is that “99% of subway cars have high-functioning AC,” as do buses, he said. Access-a-Ride units are being monitored.
When a reporter asked if recent signal issues on commuter railroads including Amtrak and NJT were related to the heat, Lieber went out of his way to stress that MTA’s Metro North was not one of the lines affected by those delays.
“I want to just be clear. We ain’t New Jersey. We ain’t Amtrak,” Lieber boasted. “Our service the last couple of weeks has been fantastic on both commuter railroads. Metro North is the premier commuter railroad in the United States with 98% on-time performance — Long Island Railroad, not far behind with 96%. We do occasionally have signal issues; that’s more routine stuff. There is no meltdown on this side of the Hudson.”
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