heat wave

“We reside in a concrete jungle“, sighs Reinaldo Morales, a veteran of the US military who got here to hunt recent air at a senior heart within the Bronx. .

This warmth, Reinaldo, 68 years outdated, lives with “fear, as a result of cooling even only one room in our home could be very costly“in vitality to run the air conditioner.”It is nice to have a middle like this to refresh your self. However the concept that we will not even afford to chill our home is horrible.”it continues, as a result of “it isn’t our pleasure to exit and benefit from the breeze“.

Aged folks play dominoes in a cooling heart throughout a summer season warmth wave within the Bronx borough of New York, July 11, 2024. Credit score: ANGELA WEISS / AFP

With temperatures between 30 and 35 levels Celsius in mid-July, New York was comparatively spared from the acute warmth wave that hit the US and precipitated the temperature to rise to 48°C in Las Vegas. One picture nonetheless struck folks’s minds: on Monday, the cellular highway bridge that connects the Harlem district of Manhattan with the Bronx was caught in the identical scenario for a number of hours, as a result of the metal was prolonged with the warmth.

Within the Bronx, which has issues of poverty, well being and air air pollution, some neighborhoods are extra affected by the warmth island impact that cities expertise as a result of lack of bushes and concrete density. “On this neighborhood, (…) we do not have a lot shade so the temperature will get very excessive, particularly when the solar is at its peak.“, stated the pinnacle of the Casa Boricua senior heart, Sandra Arroyo.

Between the blocks of buildings on this predominantly Hispanic and African-American neighborhood, the few bushes usually are not sufficient to guard Juan Lorenzo, a 72-year-old Dominican, from the humid warmth. “We go across the block, and we suffocate“, he shouts.

“You’re feeling so drained“, says Stephanie Rodriguez, a 21-year-old cashier, sitting on a bench within the shade, in entrance of her 2-year-old son who’s having fun with water video games, in the one massive park in the whole South Bronx , a neighborhood present process financial restoration In her three-room residence the place eight folks reside, says Stephanie, everybody meets within the one with the air conditioner.

Kids cool off with water from an open fireplace hydrant throughout a summer season warmth wave within the Bronx borough of New York, July 11, 2024. Credit score: ANGELA WEISS / AFP

“We want extra inexperienced house“, strongly advocates the director of the neighborhood affiliation South Bronx Unite, Arif Ullah. A stone’s throw from his constructing, on the other financial institution of Harlem and residential to waste remedy vegetation, an influence plant and warehouses, the automobiles heavy items come and go.On the finish, a young children’s playground is trapped, in full solar, below a community of elevated freeway ramps.the legacy of discriminatory and racist public insurance policies, which trigger such a neighborhood to turn into an city warmth island, and trigger extra well being issues“.

The South Bronx neighborhoods of Hunts Level and Mott Haven have charges of emergency room visits for respiratory issues as a result of air pollution effectively above the town common, based on a prolonged report from New York Metropolis Corridor from final April, the primary one who addressed the query “environmental justice“.

Metropolis Corridor estimates that about 350 folks die annually from warmth or heat-exacerbated well being issues, a mortality that impacts African Individuals twice as usually as white Among the many aggravating elements, based on the town, is the dearth of entry to air con at dwelling, which impacts the Bronx greater than different cities. In the US, harmful excessive warmth waves have elevated in massive cities as a result of local weather change and this phenomenon will proceed to worsen, scientists say.