Anonymous
Source: Public Health Department
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department is issuing a Health Alert due to the anticipated heat wave for parts of Santa Barbara County including Santa Ynez, Solvang, San Marcos Pass and Cuyama Valley on Saturday, July 27 from 11:00 am till 9:00 pm. The Public Health Department is urging residents to take the necessary safety measures to avoid heat-related illnesses, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
Community members are strongly encouraged to take the following precautions whenever temperatures are on the rise:
• Take care of those who might not be aware of the danger or be able to react accordingly – especially the elderly, young children, and pets. Check on your neighbors.
• Wear appropriate clothing. Lightweight, light-colored, loose fitting clothing works best.
• Drink plenty of cool, non-alcoholic beverages, especially those without sugar or caffeine. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. If you have fluid restrictions from your doctor, ask to see how much you should drink while the weather is hot.
• Limit outdoor activity. Try to schedule outdoor activities during the cooler parts of the day, like morning and evening hours. Be sure to wear sunscreen and rest often.
• Take regular breaks in the shade or in an air-conditioned room. A few hours in air conditioning can help your body stay cooler. Taking a cool shower or bath can help too.
• If you do not have air‐conditioning, arrange to spend at least parts of the day in a public library, movie theater, or other public space that is cool. Electric fans may provide comfort, but when the temperature is in the high 90s, they will not prevent heat-related illness.
• For those who work outside, be sure to take frequent rest breaks in a shaded area or air-conditioned room, if possible. Stay hydrated and take action by moving to a cooler space if you feel signs of heat exhaustion.
• Know the signs of heat exhaustion. If someone becomes dizzy, nauseated, or sweats heavily, find a cooler location for him or her immediately.
• Know the signs of heat stroke. Heat stroke is much more serious than heat exhaustion. The symptoms are similar to heat exhaustion, but also include hot, flushed skin. With heat stroke, the person often stops sweating and the skin will be unusually dry. If heat stroke is a possibility, call 911 immediately. Heat stroke is life threatening!
• Do not leave children (and pets) unattended in vehicles. It only takes a matter of minutes on a relatively mild day for a vehicle to reach deadly temperatures.
Hot mostly in the mountains and valleys.
Lurking out there is the threat that Edison or PG&E will cut power if extreme fire weather develops in the region. The Indepenent posted an article on this topic on Thursday. Since power for a lot of our area is routed through Ventura County, we could get power disruptions if extreme fire threat is declared far away from us. This is the time to be thinking about how you’re going to handle an extended loss of electricity.
There’s also a front page article to be prepared for power outages in the News Press with very good info. While there is no warning of a power shut off now, this is the ideal time to assess you risk and get prepared. The first warning will be a 48hr notice about an electrical shut down. When that hits, there will be run on the stores for batteries, flashlight, and LED camping lanterns. Think about picking up some of those items now if you need them. Who knows when the first extreme fire electrical shut off hits, but when it does it will be like living in the mid 1800s. I know I am not fully prepared, but this motivates me to get started.
Think about water too. If the outage is widespread and long enough enough pumping stations could shut down.
No electricity also means no ATM, credit card terminals, internet, recharging cell phones at home. Most gas station pumps won’t work, libraries, shared swimming pools will close, and, from past outages, a lot of traffic lights will be on blinking red and most restaurants and stores will be closed. (You won’t be able to run out for bags of ice even if you planned ahead & have cash.)
The old ICE BOX approach: If you eat a lot of the food in your freezer before hand, you may have room to freeze water bottles (the gallon ones are best.) If an outage hits, limit opening the refrigerator door and how long it’s open (tell kids “NO!”) Transfer the ice you froze quickly freezer to refrigerator 2 or 3 bottles at a time (depending on it’s size.) If the refrigerator seals are good, that will keep food (not dairy or meat) from going bad for about 5 days. Frozen water expands–don’t fill containers full to the brim.)
TEMPERATURE CONTROL: Open all your windows when the inside temperature is higher than outside; close them before the sun comes up. Pull your shades/drapes/curtains. If a window gets direct sun, putting a piece of cardboard or a piece of Styrofoam btw it and the curtains helps. Since indoor furnishings and walls retain heat, if you have a patio, porch or flat roof, consider sleeping outside the early part of the night if it’s not smokey.
Down votes for information about dealing with weather? How can that possibly be offensive? Perhaps the ‘handles’ of each down vote should be displayed. Or perhaps there should be a third category: “disagree”
I like the idea of seeing the handles. It is too tempting for some to be arse-holes when anonymous.
You got that right Luvaduck. I think the serial downvoters should get a fixed number of down votes each day. When simple observations and even true factual information gets down voted causing comments to go to the penalty box, then it seems like the inmates are running the asylum.