As record-setting heat wave hits its two-week mark across Texas and the Southern Plains, emergency medical service providers in the Lone Star State have treated hundreds of heat-related illnesses, and several deaths have already been reported.
Nine people in south Texas’ Webb County have died from the heat wave in eight days, Webb County medical examiner Dr. Corinne Stern said during a Commissioner’s Court Meeting on Monday. Stern noted that eight of the nine victims were Webb County residents, while one came from a nearby county but died in a Webb County hospital.
“Webb County knows heat, and I think our county was caught a little off-guard,” Stern said. “These high temperatures are higher than what we normally see.”
A spokesperson for Texas’ state Department of Social and Health Services, which tracks such deaths statewide, told FOX Weather they won’t likely have a full count of the number of heat-related deaths until at least a few weeks after the event subsides and proper investigations into cause of death can be completed.
In just two weeks, the Houston Fire Department received 309 calls about heat-related emergency services.
Emergency service provider MedStar says they have treated 177 patients for a primary heat-related illness since May 1. Twenty-five of those patients were treated on Monday, which was the most MedStar has treated in one day so far, according to spokesperson Matt Zavadsky.
Zavadsky noted the challenges between how Texans are managing during the heat wave this year compared to the heat in years’ past involves the recent wet spring leading to a more humid and hotter summer.
“The heat index, because of the humidity level, has been as high as 119 degrees, and that’s what catches people by surprise,” Zavadsky said.
People can develop a number of heat-related illnesses, especially when caught by surprise. According to Zavadsky, those illnesses occur in phases:
Zavadsky said his team has seen all of these cases over the past two months.
Certain groups are particularly vulnerable to the effects of heat.
In addition to a rise in heat-related emergency services for humans, emergency calls regarding pets in the heat have also risen. In Houston alone, the number of heat-related animal calls between June 1-20 this year have increased to 243 calls, compared to 87 calls during the same time period in 2022.
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According to Houston SPCA vice president of communications Julie Kent, this rise in numbers is coming from community members reporting animals that may be neglected in the heat.
Emergency medical services are preparing for the continuation of this record-setting heat, Zavadsky said.
Treatment centers are staffing up, maintaining extra supplies such as cold packs and IV fluids, and educating the community about the risks of this type of oppressive heat.
“We don’t want people to become complacent,” Zavadsky said. “Just be diligent and make sure that you’re not doing anything that could result in a heat related illness.”