New York City bracing for days of extreme heat

AccuWeather

Zachary Iscol of the New York City Emergency Management joins the AccuWeather Network to go over how the city is preparing for the extreme heat that will grip the region next week for days.

Transcript

00:00A lot of us are thinking heat getting near some water as we go through the days to come,

00:04but not everyone is that lucky. And New York City, one of those spots that's gearing up for

00:08a stretch of extreme heat through part of a large heat wave is expected across the eastern U.S. next

00:14week. Here to talk about safety and preparedness is Zachary Iskell, Commissioner of New York City

00:20Emergency Management. Thank you again. It's good to see you again, sir. How is the city preparing

00:26for this upcoming stretch of dangerous heat? Yeah, you too. And thank you both so much for

00:33having me on. And thanks for the work you do helping people stay informed. So as you guys are

00:37aware, heat is one of the most dangerous weather events we face here in New York City. We have

00:43over 250 New Yorkers a year who lose their lives to high heat. And so this is something that we take

00:48very, very seriously. Days in advance, we've been working very, very closely with our partners

00:54at the National Weather Service, our partners, our utility partners. We really have a couple

01:00objectives, you know, protecting the city's most vulnerable, protecting critical infrastructure,

01:04and then doing a lot to make sure that we are public messaging. And then in addition to all that,

01:09we also have an election taking place right now with early voting and then regular voting on Tuesday

01:15that we want to, we're working very, very closely with the Board of Elections to make sure voters are

01:20safe, they're getting the information they need. And we're also making sure that all those facilities

01:24are ready for a safe, secure election, early voting and on the day of.

01:32Now, what actions then, of course, on the day of, you're talking about citywide responses for cooling

01:38centers, many other services. Can you give us some more specifics?

01:42Yeah, so, you know, we're going to activate our city's emergency heat plan starting Sunday morning.

01:47That's the first day we're really going to see heat indexes over 100 degrees. A lot of work we do with

01:52Department of Social Services. We go into something called a Code Red to make sure that we're getting

01:56out there to get our homeless New Yorkers off the street, taking care of the most vulnerable.

02:01Con Ed is going to have some additional crews out to make sure they can immediately respond to any

02:06outages around the city. And then we've been doing a lot of work with the Board of Elections. We delivered

02:10over a thousand cases of water this morning. We're working with the state to arrange some cooling

02:15buses that we can deploy if needed. We have the Con Ed teams on standby should there be outages.

02:22So a lot of work that we're doing around the election as well. And also just encouraging a lot

02:29of New Yorkers to think about a heat plan as they are voting, right? If you can vote early, please do so.

02:36Try and vote around peak heat hours early in the morning, later in the day, especially if you fall

02:41into one of the more vulnerable categories. Now, along with the heat, air quality has been a concern

02:46through parts of the summer. And whenever we get heat, it can often get exaggerated, the air quality

02:52and we can lessen, I should say. What should people do with health issues that they need to keep in mind

02:57in regards to air quality? Yeah, it's a great question. Look, we're contending now with all sorts

03:04of emergencies that in the past have been novel and now we're seeing more frequently. Air quality

03:09is one of them. So number one, knowing is always half the battle. Make sure you have the information

03:14that you need. Sign up for Notify NYC here in New York City. Make sure you're also monitoring sites

03:19like airnow.gov that monitor the air quality so that you're aware. And then if we are going into some

03:25of those levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy for most New Yorkers, make sure

03:32you're limiting time outdoors. If you're feeling any of the effects, you know, wheezyness, dizziness,

03:37get indoors. And of course, never be afraid to call 9-1-9-1-1 if you find yourself in need of it.

03:45Zachary Isco, Commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. Zach, thanks for joining us

03:49here and stay cool. And I know you and your city will come through this just fine.

03:55Thank you so much. It's great to be with you guys.

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