Summer swelter exhausts survivors as they clean up
Health officials worried about heat exhaustion and heart attacks ask people to listen to their bodies.
By JAMIE THOMPSON
Published August 18, 2004
PUNTA GORDA - His gray T-shirt drenched with sweat, Jeff Doss climbed out of his truck and grabbed a cold bottle of water.
The retired Punta Gorda construction worker had spent the morning cutting a tree that fell across his boat. He was hot, tired and sweaty, already on his sixth bottle of water.
"As quick as you drink this stuff, it goes right out of you," said Doss, 63.
While recovering from Hurricane Charley, residents are dealing with two other perils of Florida living - sweltering heat and afternoon thunderstorms. With a lack of air conditioning, residents are collapsing from heat exhaustion, paramedics said.
"Our numbers have gone up since the storm," said Capt. Corey Younger of Lee County Emergency Medical Services. "We're used to the heat, but people are being exposed in unordinary circumstances."
Temperatures from Lee to Polk counties are hovering in the 90s, which feels like 105 degrees in the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
"It's typical August weather for Florida," said Russell Henes of the National Weather Service.
Paramedics are urging residents to watch for signs of heat exhaustion.
"People need to listen to their bodies," said Bill Parizek, spokesman for the state Department of Health. "If they're thirsty, they need to drink. If they're hot, they need to rest someplace cool."
Health officials are worried that there could be more deaths and injuries in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley than during the storm.
Residents who survived unscathed have hurt themselves trying to repair their homes in the heat and living with no air conditioning.
"It really gets back to getting electricity as soon as possible because that's going to solve a lot of problems," Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said after visiting a disaster relief center in Fort Myers. "Right now there are a lot of heart attacks in people who are going out and cleaning out their property."
The heat won't subside, forecasters say, until October.
Times staff writer Leanora Minai contributed to this report, which used information from the Associated Press.
