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Columbus
Dispatch...
State
officials mobilize to check on residents
Ohioans
urged to check on those at risk from severe weather
The message
from state officials this morning is clear: Check on others, and take
care of
them, in this extraordinary heat.
It’s too
easy, they said, to assume that someone else will.
The elderly
are especially vulnerable, of course. They can be afraid to open their
doors
and windows for safety, and their homes quickly become hot
boxes.
“Knock on
doors and say hello. If you have water, share it. If you know where a
cooling
station is, get your neighbor there,” said Ron Hakes, a regional
emergency services
director with the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus.
Residents
are encouraged to take refuge at cooling centers and emergency shelters
across
the area. “We want you to come, and stay as long as you like,” Hakes
said.
The
American Red Cross can be reached at 614-251-1775 to help anyone find a
cool
spot. Many libraries are staying open late today to help provide a
place to go
as well.
In Franklin
County, people can go to the Dublin Community Center, any Worthington
library
and the Worthington Community Center. The Bexley Public Library is open
9 a.m.
to 6 p.m. today and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. The Westerville Senior Center,
310 W.
Main St., is open until 4:30 p.m. today. The Plain Township Fire
Department,
9500 Johnstown Rd., New Albany, is open until 7 p.m. today.
Full-service
shelters include Peace Lutheran Church, 455 Clark State Rd., Gahanna,
and Maple
Street United Methodist Church, 438 E. Wheeling St., Lancaster.
Local fire
stations also will have information about where people can go to stay
cool.
The heat
wave has already proven deadly for the sick: two elderly women and one
man have
already died this week in Licking County.
Those still
without power are of particular concern: As of 10 a.m., 62,000 AEP Ohio
customers remain without electricity and the temperature today is
expected to
reach 104 degrees.
So at a
press conference this morning, Gov. John Kasich and members of his
administration said teams have been mobilized all across the state to
check on
as many people as possible.
Church
groups, university students, emergency-management officials, the Ohio
National
Guard, Red Cross volunteers – just about anyone who is free – is being
called
upon to help.
The
director of the Ohio Department of Health said doctors have been asked
to check
on the most vulnerable patients known to their practices.
The
director of the Ohio Department of Aging said those who run programs
for the
homebound are personally checking on every person of which they are
aware.
Today,
reverse 911 calls are being made reminding people of how to stay safe,
and
checking on folks.
“We have a
lot of boots on the ground,” said Bonnie Kantor-Burman, director of the
Ohio
Department of Aging. And she issued a caution about how to check on the
elderly.
“These
elders are the ones who built our great country and our great state.
They are
fiercely proud and independent. Dependency is something they are
fearful of,”
she said, adding that they often turn strangers – even kind ones
offering help
– away. “So we have to find who is closest to them so that the knock on
their
door is answered.”
Read this
and other articles at The Columbus Dispatch
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