Free ice cream and ‘hunkering down’: How South Sound residents plan to survive the heat
My wife and I have a running joke this time of year. It goes something like this:
Me, looking at a forecast predicting an oppressive heat wave on the way:
“Boy, it’s sure going to be nice this week.”
My wife, eyes rolling back in her head:
“Shut up.”
It’s a routine we’ve honed over the years, to the point where the annoying repetition is the punchline. But it’s also one rooted in the age-old Western Washington summer conundrum: It’s dark and wet here for nine months a year, and then when the temperature finally creeps above roughly 72 degrees, everyone acts like they’re being murdered with a handsaw. It gets me every time.
Except this time, that is.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock — which might actually be preferable, provided you’re burrowed deep enough into the cool soil below — you know it’s going to be hot this weekend. And not just kind of. The triple-digit temperatures possible on Saturday, Sunday and Monday border on obscene, meaning that the typical Northwest aversion to the sun isn’t the issue here. The days ahead will be legitimately dangerous, as the impromptu cooling stations being stood up across the area suggest, and even families fortunate enough to have somewhere to go are filled with anxiety and trepidation. In other words, it’s not just stubborn dads with an arsenal of dumb jokes they suddenly can’t use struggling with all this.
So how are South Sound residents reacting to the coming heat wave?
Not always well, it seems.
“I’m not happy about it,” said 28-year-old Chelsea Talbert, who lives on Tacoma’s Eastside with her two rescue dogs, Archie and Tallulah.
“I live in a 843-square-foot home that’s a hot box,” she added, noting that her plans include eating a bunch of gigantic frozen strawberries from Costco and buying a cooling pad for her pups.
“We’ve just never seen (temperatures like this) before, so it’s hard to even know how to prepare,” Talbert said. “I’m hunkering down, and not going anywhere.”
Talbert isn’t alone. Across the region plenty of folks are crafting game plans, charting their course for survival over the coming days. Whether you’re at the supermarket or scrolling through your Facebook feed, there’s no shortage of ingenious ideas.
At our house — which is 100-years-old and lacks air conditioning (because that would be overkill, right?) — we’re contemplating moving beds into the basement. We’ve also located our little-used camping tent in the garage, in case sleeping outdoors becomes the preferable option.
Beyond the confines of House Driscoll, people are getting even more creative, and also finding ways to look out for those around them. On Thursday, a number of heat-weary locals told me of plans to make a beeline for the coast or their neighborhood sprayground, or set up one of those ice-bucket-fan contraptions, or fill the kiddie pool on Saturday morning and not get out.
The ideas get even more imaginative, community minded and adaptive from there.
Dana Coggon lives in Tacoma, but during the day the 42-year-old serves as noxious weed controller for Kitsap County, meaning she leads a four-person crew that’s typically out in rural areas of the peninsula — or along roadsides — trying to prevent the spread of invasive species.
In her 15 years on the job, Coggon said she’s never seen anything like the temperatures her team will likely face on Monday.
It makes her worry about the months ahead.
“This is by far the earliest it has ever been this hot, and the projection for us to have multiple days of this definitely concerns me for the health and safety of my crew moving forward,” Coggon said.
“When you deal with Mother Nature, sometimes Mother Nature gets a little sassy,” she continued. “We’re trying to figure it out.”
Asked about her plans, and how she’ll protect her coworkers, Coggon said they’ll be equipped with insulated water bottles and cooling neck gaiters. They’ll also start early, working primarily along creeks and in riparian areas for shade.
Then, when the temperatures get to be too much, they’ll head inside, Coggon said.
It presents another challenge, given the short season when noxious weed control work is possible, but there’s no sense fighting it, she knows.
“Safety is … paramount for my staff members, and if that means we have to skip a day of fieldwork and we have to do a day of data entry, that’s just the way it’s going to be,” Coggon said.
Back in the city, Brendan Nelson, 38, has been president of the Hilltop Action Coalition for the last six years. By phone, Nelson told me that the forecast makes him think of his time in Texas, where he spent roughly half of his life.
“My eyes got big,” Nelson said of his reaction to the forecast. “Seeing that 106 was just really shocking.”
Given his experience dealing with the heat, Nelson said he knows the weather ahead is no laughing matter. That’s why he’ll be part of an effort on Sunday to hand out free ice cream at People’s Park. He’ll also be leading a team of young volunteers that plans to distribute water to people experiencing homelessness on the Hilltop, he said, specifically targeting encampments on South J Street and near the Evergreen State College Tacoma campus.
“This is definitely a time to look out for each other,” Nelson said. “Immediately, I thought about people who don’t have a place to go.”
At home, Nelson said he recently purchased a misting fan that he plans to put to good use. He’s invited friends and family over as well.
While Nelson often takes advantage of warm weather for community barbecues — which he plans to continue this weekend — he said this weekend gathering comes with an added benefit: It will allow him and others to keep tabs on the people in the neighborhood they care about.
Like most, Nelson’s not looking forward to the heat, but he does believe the forecast is helping to remind the people of Tacoma what’s important.
“We could joke about it. We could find the humor in it. But it’s also great to see that our community will step and provide for those who need it,” Nelson said.
“We’re going to be doing the best we can.”
This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
