Murcia, which exceeded 45 degrees, and Cartagena set up temporary accommodation to pick up homeless people from the street
The threat was not for less. The Community and the municipalities are mobilized these days to face a heat wave that yesterday left temperatures of up to 45.9 degrees Celsius in the Region. The forecast that the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) put on the table already made it clear that the thermometers would start the week shot up in a good part of the regional geography and it was right. An extreme forecast that put the social and emergency services on alert with exceptional measures, such as the interruption of the municipal employees’ day, the suspension of classes outdoors or the closure of the mountains, to be able to face one of the days hottest in recent decades.
Although the Community has been used to summers in which mercury finds no ceiling for many years, the red alert that the Aemet launched a few days ago set off the alarms. Given this perspective, the regional government activated on Sunday the pre-emergency phase of the Territorial Plan for Civil Protection of the Region (Platemur) and alerted the municipalities of what was to come. La Vega del Segura took the worst part this Monday – in Molina it reached 45.9 degrees and in Archena 45.2 – of a heat that also raised the thermometers to 43.9 degrees in Cieza and 43.1 in Lorca.
The streets of the City of the Sun were the closest thing to hell. The weather alert forced the City Council to adopt measures to protect municipal personnel who work outdoors, such as street sweepers, park and garden operators and controllers of regulated parking areas. All of them shortened their day and finished working in the streets at 1:00 p.m. to avoid heat stroke. In the case of the municipal cleaning company, the measure affected the 23 workers on the day shift. The afternoon service was reduced “to the essentials,” explained the deputy mayor and councilor for Public Companies, Francisco Morales. A van with two operators was in service to collect cardboard from shops or deal with incidents.
Lorca extends the hours of the sources and in Cartagena they send recommendations to the elderly by WhatsApp
In Lorca, in addition, the outdoor activities of the students of the municipal employment and training programs were suspended. In addition, the hours of the fountains were extended (from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.) and “irrigation work will be carried out in the poplar groves to cool the area and be able to find shade and some cool for this hot day”, explained the Councilor for Emergencies and Civil Protection, Isabel Casalduero. The mayor, Diego José Mateos, asked the companies to guarantee the safety of their workers and not expose them to the sun in the middle of the day. He explained that to shelter the homeless from the heat, the municipal shelter for transients also opened during daytime hours.
In Cartagena they also focused their attention on those who have the least. Both the homeless and transient unit and the begging device of the Department of Social Services worked to offer a roof to those who do not have it during this episode of high temperatures. “Since the start of the heat wave, between 8 and 10 homeless people and transients have used the accommodation at Hospitalidad de Santa Teresa,” explained councilwoman Mercedes García. Preventive measures are also being taken with the elderly, one of the most vulnerable groups. Through a WhatsApp group, they are sent health recommendations to avoid heat stroke.
Yesterday three people needed medical assistance, and two of them were referred to the hospital
The Mula City Council also agreed on prevention measures for municipal workers. He suppressed outdoor activity during the central hours of the day. As from the Consistory of Lorca, he called on agricultural and construction companies to adapt the days of their templates.
Quite similar measures have been adopted for weeks in Jumilla. The Councilor for Works and Services, Francisco González, explained that “long before this heat wave, since June 20, the schedules of all the personnel who work on the street, such as cleaning, have been adapted.” In this way, he recounted, they start work at 6:30 and finish at 1:00 p.m. “The garbage collectors now start their day at ten at night, that is, one hour later than before,” he remarked. As for other areas, such as bricklayers or painters, the councilor stressed that “they try to work indoors and if they have to do something in the street, they always do it first thing in the morning.”
On the other hand, until next Thursday, the General Directorate of the Natural Environment keeps closed to road traffic the accesses through forest roads that cross public forests in almost all the wooded areas of the Region.
The risk that the heat poses to citizens is not trivial. Since the end of May, the high temperatures have led to 17 interventions, according to data from the Ministry of Health, which insists that the episodes cannot be classified as heatstroke yet, until the suspicions are analyzed. The last three of these assistances were yesterday and two required transfers to the Morales Meseguer (Murcia) and Los Arcos (San Javier) hospitals, the latter 25 years old.
The Aemet anticipates that the thermometers will give a respite today with maximums that are not expected to exceed 37 degrees throughout the Community. The respite, however, may be short since meteorologists warn that high temperatures will continue to be very present until well into autumn.
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