Richmond senior surprised at lack of cooling centres

Vera Janosek lives in a 55+ building and when the heat wave hit earlier this week, she started googling where in Richmond she and other seniors in her building could find a cooling centre.

No extra cooling centres were set up in Richmond as the city claimed it was restricted by COVID-19 physical distancing public health orders.

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) put out a bulletin last Friday saying the risk from the heat exceeded the risk of COVID-19.

Regardless, the city claimed it was under provincial health orders, not those of VCH – even though, when asked by the Richmond News, the province said VCH did have “jurisdiction over guidelines.”

Moreover, other municipalities including Vancouver, acted on the VCH bulletin and set up cooling centres for their residents.  

When Janosek only found libraries were open for relief from the heat, she called city hall but was told community centres, arenas and pools were only available for those registered in programs.

Janosek couldn’t understand how even the new Minoru Seniors Centre, with its large rooms and air conditioning wasn’t open – she was told by city hall they didn’t have enough staff to open it.

“How much staff do you need?” Janosek told the Richmond News. She said seniors just needed some chairs to sit down on for a few hours to get relief from the heat.

And Janosek said the fact the B.C. chief coroner reported a high number of deaths should make it a “special time.”

“Isn’t this a situation (where there is) a little flexibility on the part of the people who decide how things are run in Richmond?” Janosek said.

But city spokesperson Clay Adams said there was nothing “official” to support VCH’s statement about heat risk exceeding the risk of COVID-19.

“Despite some conversations we didn’t get much clarity (from VCH),” Adams said.

And with just 24-to-48-hour notice on the coming heat wave, the public health restrictions on gatherings, and facilities still running with skeleton staff, it was a challenge to open up any cooling centres.

The city set up six outdoor misting centres in parks, put up tents and covered picnic tables and offered libraries as cooling centres, which were well prescribed.

And the city added as much capacity as it could to community facilities.

Some Richmondites did show up at facilities to seek relief from the heat, and they weren’t turned away, Adams added.

Janosek said she was “shocked” by early reports from the Chief Coroner Lisa LaPointe that about 486 people died during the heat wave across the province between June 25 and June 30. By Friday, this number had climbed to 719 and the coroner said it might rise even further.

The latest numbers are three times what would normally occur, LaPointe said in a release.

“While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather B.C. has experienced and continues to impact many parts of our province,” she stated.

In Richmond, there were 10 sudden deaths between June 26 and July 1, according to Richmond RCMP. This is higher than normal, but the coroner is still investigating the causes and manner of these deaths.

Conversations are happening now, however, at the city about how a future heat wave would be handled, and, making it easier is the easing of physical distancing restrictions as the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, Adams said.