Oregon’s temperatures are dipping, but last month’s heat wave solidified an unsettling trend: Extreme heat is hitting Oregon’s aging population hard.
With withering temperatures at 100 degrees or higher during the July 2024 heat wave, 16 people died due to suspected issues related to the heat, according to the state medical examiner’s office. All but two of the deaths were people over the age of 50, and most of them were in their 70s or 80s.
It’s a worldwide problem as climate change is prompting higher temperatures, coinciding with an aging population. But it’s also very local. Zoom in to Multnomah County, for example, where from 2006 to 2023, 88 people died due to the heat or an issue related to the heat, and all but three of those deaths happened after 2021.
FILE - Dorene Rosenbaum, 87, plays a game at the Council on Aging in Bend, Ore., on July, 5 2024. It was one of four designated cooling centers open in Bend during a statewide heat wave.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
State Rep. Dacia Grayber, a first responder and an Oregon Democratic lawmaker representing Southwest Portland and parts of Beaverton, said that as soon as the temperature spikes, she will respond more often to the senior and vulnerable populations.
That tracks with Multnomah County’s data. In 2023, there were 141 emergency and urgent care visits for heat-related illnesses, the third highest since record-keeping began in 2016. Black, Indigenous and people of color over the age of 65 were the most likely to need hospital care in 2023, according to a report from Multnomah County.
In addition to the higher temperatures, there’s been other extreme weather, including ice storms and wildfires, that have hit seniors and vulnerable populations harder.
The extreme heat is a relatively new problem the state must consider. In the Portland metro area, 2023 was the second-hottest summer on record — only the deadly 2021 heat dome was hotter.
During the July heat wave, staff from the state’s resilience and emergency department delivered close to 2,000 air conditioners to people who participated in the state health authority climate device program. They made in-person deliveries in the first 10 days of July. Additionally, climate trailers can be sent to support long-term care facilities that have lost their air conditioning or have no functioning air conditioner. Home care workers and in-home care agencies can also transport individuals to cooling stations and stay with them and get reimbursed for this through Medicaid funding.
Grayber, who also previously chaired the committee tasked with emergency management, said it’s now time for the state to be more proactive when it comes to preparing for emergencies and protecting vulnerable adults.
“We have to get out of this mode where we just react to the conditions that are and understand that this is the new norm,” she said. “Until we fix the greater issue of climate change, which will take generations, we have to build systems that uphold people’s health and livelihoods whether it’s ranching in Eastern Oregon or surviving in a long-term care facility.”
One of the state’s solutions to help respond more nimbly to extreme weather events is to funnel millions toward so-called “community resiliency hubs.” During the 2023 legislative session lawmakers approved a grant program to help fund community-based or faith-based organizations to partner with local governments to help create more warming or cooling shelters and to generally help people in the midst of a disaster.
“It’s no secret that Oregon’s emergency management services are stretched thin, and across the state, people of color, low-income, rural, and disabled communities are hit hardest in times of disaster,” a letter to legislative leaders from the community resilience hub coalition read in March of 2023.
The state received more than 700 applications requesting about $170 million worth of projects. They have just $10 million to allocate and sending out the money has been delayed, ironically, due to the wildfires the state is currently battling. Ed Flick, director of the Oregon Department of Human Services’ Offices of Resilience and Emergency Management, said he hopes the money goes out later this month. He said there have been a wide range of requests, but many programs are asking for help with generators that would allow them to continue to operate a cooling or heating shelter when the power goes off.
The emergency response coordinator for St. Vincent de Paul in Lane County, Tim Black, has a front-row seat to the state’s changing emergency needs. Historically, his main task was operating a heating and warming center when temperatures dropped below 30 degrees. More recently, he’s been tasked with operating cooling centers to function as a respite from wildfire smoke. Black said during the heat wave this July, his volunteers helped more than 172 people escape the heat.
“So, yes, whether it’s cold or heat or smoke, it has a greater impact on the older communities,” Black said. “That is an issue we keep talking about and have to get better at figuring it out.”
Older adults are simply more susceptible to extreme heat, according to Natalie Christian, a geriatrician and professor of geriatrics with Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. That could be because of underlying symptoms or medication they are on or simply because they have a harder time cooling down.
“As we get older, we have a diminished capacity for thermal regulation,” Christian said, noting that it’s quickly becoming a more urgent worldwide issue.
When the temperatures rose this summer, seniors also reached out to the state’s long-term care ombudsman.
“I can tell you we have had some complaints come in around buildings being too hot and asking what the rules are around the temperatures in the long-term facilities,” said Carson Cottingham, with the state’s long-term care ombudsman program.
Emblematic of how the spike in heat is a relatively new issue the state is grappling with, there aren’t any state regulations governing how cool certain state-licensed facilities must be kept. Although there are federal requirements to maintain comfortable temperatures in the range between 71 and 81 degrees. The state’s guidance simply says fans must be made available when air conditioning is not provided during times of extreme summer heat.
When some of the facilities were originally built, cooling wasn’t as big of an issue as it is now.
“It’s very expensive to upgrade some of the nursing homes that have been around a long time. Adding a full-blown cooling system would be quite costly,” Carson Cottingham said.