Looking to better broadcast the risks associated with more frequent heat waves, the state of California is intending to set up a warning system that will provide a ranking as to their relative severity. Says Ricardo Lara, California Insurance Commissioner, who plans to sponsor a bill to develop the ranking system, to The Desert Sun, “Without a way to rank heat waves, we treat extreme heat more like a weather story when it’s really a public health crisis.”
While the current bill only proposes developing a ranking system of the heat wave severity, it does remain open to adding names for heat waves, similar to those used for hurricanes. To support the ranking, which is expected to consist of three tiers where one is the least severe and three the most, additional information will also be broadcast on how communities can respond to a heat wave, at both the local government and individual levels.
Says Rivas, “There are a lot of vulnerable people, especially the elderly, that stay in their apartment, they’re not informed, they don’t know what the risk is, and they end up dying because either they don’t have an air conditioner, or they may hesitate to run their air conditioner because they can’t pay the electric bill. And we can’t continue to let that happen and not be prepared.”
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