NOAA heat impact study puts faces to local effects of 2023 heat wave

Community organizations have been advocating for the city to direct more resources toward heat relief and climate emergency response. A 2021 study examining how extreme heat affects East Austin residents is giving more weight to that work.

The study, titled “Heat vulnerability of Latino and Black residents in a low-income community and their recommended adaptation strategies,” was sponsored in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It gathered extensive testimony from 18 Austin residents who were classified as members of minority groups and at risk of the effects of temperatures regularly in the 90s or above. The interviews were conducted in three ZIP codes – 78752, 78753 and 78758 – with members of the community advocacy group Go Austin/Vamos Austin asking participants how triple-digit temperatures affect their daily lives.

Common answers were that extreme heat makes it difficult to manage health care, travel to work or other obligations, or care for children properly. Multiple respondents shared stories of feeling immediately dizzy or lightheaded in extreme heat, causing them to remain indoors and socially isolated for long periods of time.

Frances Acuña, GAVA’s climate resilience community lead organizer, said the interviews confirmed common issues facing residents who have difficulty advocating for heat relief and resiliency with local authorities.

Climate change is affecting everyone’s lives, Acuña said, and “each year it’s worse, and we know it’s not going to get any better. … So it’s important that we address it right now and empower residents, so they could be able to advocate for their needs.” She noted, as an example, a low-income resident she recently worked with who had a $922.61 energy bill because of air conditioning needs.

GAVA had planned to use money from a recent grant from The Solutions Project to cover admission fees to city pools for residents, but the city’s move to make pools free of charge through September has allowed the group to begin offering direct assistance to community members with high energy bills or other heat-related expenses.

Carmen Llanes, executive director of GAVA, said the personal stories gathered from the 2021 study have helped to put human faces on the impacts of climate change locally.

“What we did find useful was comparing where people feel the most pressure from heat or where they feel the most impacts from heat and comparing that to what our agencies, what our city and what our institutions do with what the heat sensors say or what satellite data tells us,” she said. “What we already know about the built environments gives us a big picture, but we get a lot more data from collecting information, geographic information, about people’s experience, the actual human impact of that, and who’s impacted.”

As Council passed a new city budget last week, Council Member Chito Vela celebrated the $2 million increase he sponsored to help the Parks and Recreation Department provide more shade structures, tree cover and heat-relief assets like splash pads. The $2 million was an increase from $210,000 suggested in the draft budget.

Vela said a panel he attended during a recent conference in New York looked at the need for major cities such as Austin to become “heat ready,” with the parks budget amendment serving as an early move in that direction. He said the city is in talks with the Austin Parks Foundation to add more money toward shade and heat-relief projects.

“My shade structure amendment to the parks budget was an initial step for becoming a heat-ready city … and PARD is already installing new things like shade structures when they’re building new stuff,” he said. “Thinking about climate stuff, we have additional wildfire management resources to address, additional flood control resources, and we’re purchasing another aerial fire truck.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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Posted In: Environment, District 1, District 4, District 7