Texas is experiencing the hottest weather on record. Man-made climate change is warming the planet and that is creating a stretch of days well over 100 degrees in San Antonio. The high heat is directly impacting the community, including people who have no place to hide from the heat.
San Antonio’s Haven for Hope has a street outreach team to provide cold water and iced towels to the un-housed.
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District’s Dr. Rita Espinoza said the city is seeing a sharp and steady rise in the number of people stricken by heat illness who need emergency services.
“There were just in one week, 60 individuals who were in need of emergency medical services,” she said. “We know that those numbers are increasing. So, I think the message really needs to be on prevention, so that we're not continuing to see these high numbers.”
In June San Antonio saw double the number of heat illness responses than the year before, Espinoza said.
Hot Prisons
A deadly heat wave continues across the Southwest and an often-forgotten group of those affected are hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Many inmates struggle to stay cool in aging facilities, including in Texas where some 100,000 prisoners live in large facilities that lack air conditioning. Texas Public Radio’s Paul Flahive reports.
Prison Water
Texas has raised the amount a bottle of water costs inside its prisons for inmates by 50 percent in the last month. The price hike comes as 100,000 inmates struggle to endure the state’s deadly heatwave in facilities that lack air conditioning. TPR’s Paul Flahive has more.
Texas Workers
More Texas workers die from extreme heat than in any other state, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Currently there is no national standard for heat illness protection.
San Antonio-Austin Congressman Greg Casar is calling on President Biden and his administration to step in, using the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
Greg Casar is a Texas Congressman, and the Democrat represents parts of Austin and San Antonio. He said Biden has the authority to step in.
“In fact, he’s already starting to move forward in pushing for national rules to protect every Texan and every American out there working in the heat. To give people the right to stop working, go into the shade and get some water,” said Casar.
Casar said the federal government is being forced to step in because under Governor Greg Abbott Texas passed HB 2127 which prevents cities from requiring workers have water breaks.
Leaving ERIC
Texas is leaving a program many states use to check duplicate voter registrations and clean voter rolls. Experts say this move weakens election security in the state.
Texas Secretary of state Jane Nelson says the state is leaving the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) in three months.
Secure Democracy USA’s Senior Policy Director Daniel Griffith said he’s certain that this move will make Texas election less secure and make it easier for voters to double vote.
“I think it is certain that it weakens the voter protections of the states simply because election officials are going to lose access to data about those voters and there’s just nothing that replaces that wealth of information,” said Griffith.
Griffith said ERIC was targeted by conspiracy theories which have been debunked.
